Sometimes you find bars in unexpected places.
Cookstown Hockey Club is one such. Maybe I was a bit naive in thinking it was just some kind of training room/ changing facilities.
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| The Old Ticket desk |
Thursday night I took part in a charity fund raiser quiz (came second by 1.5 points!) held at the venue and was unexpectedly surprised. The venue used to be Cookstown railway station, with the bar being ticket office and waiting room and the original platforms and rails forming an outside seating area. A pub with so many characterful features has been on my doorstep all along! It's
been recently refurbished with a glass wall to allow viewing of the period features. There's also a real fire, plenty of seats and tables and old railway paraphernalia adorning the walls (as well as hockey club photos of course).
On walking in I found bass on the splendid bar (though was not on) and I settled for a mass-market bottled-lager instead. Whilst perusing the spirits shelves behind the bar (stocked with 10 sorts blended whisky!) I spotted some familiar shaped bottles...
Wells' Waggle-dance! It transpires these had been left over from a previous tasting evening.
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| Real Fire! |
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| Who's this cheeky chap? |
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| Under the arches |
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| Old loo locks |
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| Yes, that is a *** in the background |
Coming in a clear glass bottle and therefore highly susceptible to light strike it was with some trepidation I poured the contents into a glass. Initial signs were good with a good head of foam forming and nothing untoward in the aroma. In taste its a fairly malty number, that 5% ABV helping it to stand up the ravages of time. There's some sweetness from the honey too and a small touch of oxidation at the back of the finish that doesn't detract from the overall experience (so I availed them of their second bottle too).
I now plan to return and also let the NI breweries know that here, in this most unlikely of places, is another potential outlet for their beers (though I don't think they'd be stocking cask).
