Black Isle Bar, Inverness

A newly-opened bar bringing hipster culture to the Highlands. Chunky scrubbed wood tables, exposed pipes, a nasty bare concrete ceiling plus a jumbo wall mural of some generic-looking countryside with a 'welcome to' sign (is it meant to be the outside of Inverness??). A genuinely impressive feature is the long and solid tree bar top. Food offering is inevitably pizza, priced from £9.50 to £10.50. 25 keg beers (no traditional cask) potentially available with about 20 on during our visit, displayed on an electronic screen ala the Wellington in Brum. Prices are generally expensive and only one offering came in at under 2 quid a half. Noticed that no pint servings were available for beer over 6% - pub’s doing or Scottish Parliament nanny statism? Tried the BFM BATS (pretty meh) and Black Isle Hiberbator (decent), both served very cold. Unusual feature are the sinks in the toilets, with the ‘taps’ actually being a singular copper pipe that has a set flow from the hot and cold pipes feeding into it – looked daft but actually had a practical use in that the water was warm coming out at the first time of asking. Overall it’s expensive and a tad pretentious but was fairly busy mid-Sunday. Will the novelty wear off? I might be tempted in gain, but only for (a cheap) one. 6.5

New-style brewery alehouse, with a 'L'-shaped layout featuring a mix of basic wooden furniture and industrial lighting / ventilation high above. Also offers accommodation. 20 keg taps for craft beers and a cider (about 50% their own products) supplemented by six gravity taps. The latter were dispensing three of their beers when I called in: Yellowhammer (£3.80), Red Kite and Goldeneye. Visited at a quiet time (relatively early on a Sunday) but the staff were friendly and offered a couple of samples.

Official site of Black Isle Bar - www.blackislebrewery.com

Official site of Black Isle Bar - www.blackislebrewery.com