Trout Inn, Girvan

Now the only pub in the village since the Galloway Hotel closed, the Trout was once part of the Commercial Hotel. Although it still proclaims itself a Hotel, there was no indication that accommodation is available. If it still is, it can only consist of a handful of rooms on the upper floor of the building. The ground floor contains a single room with a bar and restaurant separated only by a partition. The bar has a TV and juke box and an acoustic guitar on a stand in the corner suggests that live music sessions also take place. On a shelf above the guitar, an impressively large stuffed trout reflects the pub’s name. Myself excepted, the clientele appeared to be all locals, although, judging by their conversations, some customers were from the outlying farms around the village. It is, after all, the only pub for miles around. A pint of Tennent’s lager cost me £3 and Carling lager, Stella Artois, Caledonia Best, Guinness, McEwan’s 60 Shilling and Strongbow cider are also on draught. There is also a hand pump, but it wasn’t in use and didn’t look as if it had been in the recent past. This is a decent enough village pub, but somewhere you’re only likely to visit if you’re passing by on the long dry road between the oases of Girvan and Newton Stewart.