Black Isle Bar, Inverness

Black Isle Brewery’s tap in Inverness, next door to ‘spoons. In true brewery tap fashion it does pizza and has 26 keg taps on the back wall all displayed on an Untapped like screen as well as a paper version on clip boards on the tables. Talking of furniture it’s mostly low tables and chairs with a tall table in the middle. Not all the taps serve Black Isle kegs, four had guests including a Timmermans and a St Bernardus 12, one had their cider and three with their casks. It is GBG listed for 2026. The counter is a nice couple of pieces of varnished but otherwise unfinished tree trunk. The ceiling of concrete beams is liberally scattered with industrial stuff. There’s a boxed in area on the right which has a sign saying The Secret Garden, I didn’t explore the seating upstairs, the box is decorated with a large mural, the wall beside the counter has a painted map showing the location of the Black Isle brewery. Yes it’s popular and seating could be a problem but the staff and beer were fine on my lunchtime visit.

This brewery bar is simply furnished, almost universally featuring large tables and wooden benches (though I was fortunate to score a proper padded seat). It's busy and offers pizza as the main food option, the aroma from which will be obvious as soon as you enter. Behind the bar, multiple protruding taps pour around 22 keg and 3 cask beers, mostly from Black Isle themselves, as you'd expect. If you can somehow choose a quiet time, it's well worth a visit to take the opportunity to sample several off the list. Definitely one of the better examples of the style.

On a street corner with large plate glass windows,this is an open plan interior with a large Pizza oven at the rear,a very long bar extending along the left hand wall.The furniture is mainly large wooden refectory style tables and with the food popular there can be a scramble for seating at busy times.It's also popular with families,so kids might be roaming and the noise level is high,the muzak doesn't help. The screen above the bar was offering three cask ales,their Red Kite,Goldfinch and Yellowhammer (tired ,end of barrel,NBSS 2) while there are three Black Isle kegs offering a boubon aged 80/-,a 60/- and a Golden beer.There were 4 guest kegs and a house spakling cider but the kegs we tried were overcarbonated and much too cold.Service at the bar was slow and chaotic but at least cheerful. We sloped off disappointed ,this was our only visit during a full three days in Inverness and we questioned why it features in the 2026 GBG.Maybe it's popularity has led to operational weakness.With a bar full of tourists maybe less care is taken.

large tavern style, long benches and good beer.

Corner bar that was very busy on our Friday visit. Being one of 2 Black Isle Brewery bars (the other is in Fort William), this one stocked a good range of their beers. Most were on keg, but there were 3 cask - 21 Pale, Goldfinch & Red Kite. The keg options were Blonde, 21 Pale, Supply Chain Issues, Porter, Hibernator Oatmeal Stout, Scotch Ale, Spider Monkey, Goldfinch, Heaven Hill Barrel Aged Full Circle, Systems Theory - West Coast Edition, Colonel Custard's Imperial Barrel Aged Scotch Ale, Red Kite, Road Runner, Farmhouse Spelt Lager, Rolling Palace 3 & The Big Sleep Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout. The draft cider was their Natural Organic Cider and there were also a number of guest beers on keg - Brouwerij Boon Kriek Boon, Black Hole Equations #2, Tiny Rebel 505, Magic Rock Serendipitous, Huyghe Delirium Tremens & Beerbliotek Eternal Darkness. On the ground floor, there is a roughly square shaped room with the bar to the rear left. A screen to the side of the bar lists the full beer selection. Service was quick, but there were no tables available. We had been hoping to try one of their pizzas cooked in their wood-fired oven at the rear of the room. But the lack of tables seemed to reduce our chances. Instead, we chose to try out the secret garden on the rooftop. You pass some of the premises' bunk rooms on the way. The garden area was much larger than we had anticipated. There is a separate bar in one corner, stocking a more limited beer range, whilst some tables are located under heaters, with others more exposed to the elements, despite most of the area being undercover. We did eventually manage to grab a table and we did try the pizzas, which were very tasty indeed. I very much enjoyed my visit here and of all the pubs and bars we tried during our weekend in Scotland, this was the best.