Standing Stones Hotel, Stenness, Stromness

Large roadside pub/eatery a short distance from the Standing Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar. We arrived at the fag-end of lunchtime on a dreary weekday and we were the only customers most of the time, which made the MTV channel (on the telly for the barmaid's amusement) a detraction to the atmosphere, which obviously wasn’t brilliant. An unusual feature I spotted are the large back-to-back seats in camel colouring which breaks the large open-plan room up a bit. The beer garden overlooks the Loch of Stenness and I can imagine it’s a bit of a draw in the summer season. Local drinkers are catered for with three dart boards and two pool tables at the rear by the toilets. At the bar was one handpump with a turned clip (presumably the ale here is only on when there’s demand?). So I had a McEwans 70/- before discovering that there were 13 local bottled beers in fridge. So after guzzling the keg I splashed out on an Orkney Dark Island Reserve, which was rather wonderful. A quick note about the food – the salmon was lovely and helped make up for some of the other shortcomings. 5.5

Official site of Standing Stones Hotel - www.standingstoneshotel.co.uk

Official site of Standing Stones Hotel - www.standingstoneshotel.co.uk