The Strugglers Inn, Lincoln

Excellent beer-drinkers pub with a heritage inventory interior, located on the west side of the castle and close to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life if you are interested in other aspects of the local history. The bar is dominated by the splendid selection of real ales in a range of styles and strengths from a total of 11 handpumps and a vast array of clips on the walls and ceiling, but the Lincoln Snug of to one side is a real treasure of a room. I went for the Norwegian Blue from Newark (£3.50), but you could certainly stay for an elongated session here.

A wonderful place at the base of the castle walls and full of traditional character (CAMRA inventory listed too – regional), especially so on our pre-festive visit where the decorations and atmosphere were maxed out to 11. Absolutely rammed, and we were fortunate to grab two spare stools at the end of a table. Basically penned in so unable to explore much, beyond noting that it’s a two-room place (one is basically a snug) with lots of old pumpclips on display and a tiled log-burning fire. 11 ales listed on the blackboard from near and far. My Abbeydale Salvation was in very good shape. Really enjoyed my stop and having then gone down the hill to tick other far less good pubs, I wish I’d stayed here. The best two pubs on my evening were this and the Vic opposite, with this one edging it. Plan a session split between the two and you can’t go far wrong, I’d say. Lovely. 9.5

An absolutely wonderful traditional pub under the castle walls, if ever there was a pub worth the walk up the infamous Steep Hill, this is the one. If you only ever only go to one pub in Lincoln make it this one.

When i first visited the Strugglers it was a Stones tied house,things have improved loads since then. Once inside the pub is pretty much unaltered,we had a drink in both rooms on two visits yesterday,there is a small square shaped lounge to the front right which has a few normal tables and chairs,but we managed to get a seat in this room,the main bar room is to the left,this is a narrowish oblong shaped room,there is comfy bench seating down the left side and small stools,we also got a seat in here early evening on two small stools which were close to a real fire which was roaring away. There are about 7 pumps on the bar,on our recent visit all had Christmas beers on which is no problem for us as we like them,on our first visit we had Oldershaws Holly Daze which went down very well,on our second visit we had a drink of Great Newsome Winter Warmer. There is a real fire in both rooms. We have been in this pub loads of times and always enjoy our time here,3 pints drunk all really nice. The pub was really packed which created a great atmosphere on each visit,both me and the wife prefer this pub to the Victoria. Pub first visited 26/3/1983 Recent visit 6/12/2014