The Ship & Pilot, Ilfracombe

Close to the harbour and the lifeboat station is The Ship and Pilot, a pub that promotes itself as “Ilfracombe’s Real Ale Pub” and claims to offer “6 Real Ales and 2 Genuine Ciders all year round”. A yellow painted exterior leads into a single bar pub with a curved bar counter and a comfortable carpeted traditional interior. Indicative of a slightly old fashioned feel to the place, the bar retains a dark velvet padded bar front. The walls are decorated with plenty of interesting photos of old Ilfracombe, including one showing how the town celebrated the George and Mary Coronation in 1911. There’s also a photo from September 1927 when Cardiff City brought both the F A Cup and Welsh Cups, which they had won the previous year, to the town for a charity game. Reflecting the fact that the local lifeboat station is virtually next door, there’s plenty of lifeboat photos. Round the back of the bar, there’s a skittle alley which was not being used during my visits, but reflects the fact that the pub participates in the Ilfracombe Euchre League. There’s a few tables and chairs on the pavement outside, but, unfortunately, these are on the inland side of the building and afford views, not of the harbour and the sea, but of the bus station. Whilst clearly enjoying a good local trade, the pub is evidently also looking to catch the tourist trade and a good selection of bar meals are available at both lunchtime and evening. Commensurate with it’s boast of being Ilfracombe’s real ale pub, a good range of 5-6 beers were available on my visits on consecutive days in mid – September. Whilst beers sampled were consistently good, on none of my visits was there any real correlation between those actually available on the pumps and those advertised outside. Where a pub is offering 9-10 beers and the range is constantly changing due to quick turnover, it is perhaps understandable if 1 or 2 of the advertised beers are out of date, but that wasn’t the case here. Those beers that were actually on included Druids Blood, a dark robust bitter ( 5.2%) from Ilfracombe’s Wizard Brewery and which, at only £ 2.80p, represented much better value than previous pints in Devon / Cornwall pubs in the previous week or so. Also on were beers from Exmoor, including the legendary Beast and a beer from the local Clearwater Brewery – Real Smiler ( £2.50p ) . Unusually, Bass was also on. A fine collection of pumpclips bear testimony to the range of beers evidently available in past times. The pub has made the 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, it’s first ever listing and, on my second visit, shortly after publication, the pub was prominently displaying the newly acquired sticker in the front window, together with the normal larger poster and congratulatory letter from the local CAMRA branch chairman on a noticeboard inside. You should certainly visit this pub when in Ilfracombe but, if my visits were anything to go by, don’t take too much notice of the list of beers advertised outside.

A traditional, old fashioned Devonshire public house, specialising in real ales & ciders. Six real ales and two real ciders are available all year around, as well as better known brands - plus wines & spirits, bar snacks & cooked food. The pub is CAMRA accredited, and also a grade II listed building (English Heritage). With the exception of one real ale from the local Wizard Ales (Druid's Fluid), the ales and ciders are constantly varied all year, providing an interesting & rewarding experience for the connoisseur - as well as a haven for those who simply want the congenial, friendly atmosphere of a proper pub