The Clachaig......pool table...

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 abr1966 18 Nov 2021

...is no more....

I popped for a pint and a game of pool but it's been removed and they said there were no plans for it to be returned!

For me,  as someone who has spent a lot of time in that pub....going back many decades it seems so not right....!

 subtle 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

It went down hill when they got rid of the pie oven.

OP abr1966 18 Nov 2021
In reply to subtle:

Yep.....

Maybe I'm just past moving with the times these days....I've just had so many good times drinking, smoking and playing pool in there....all seems a bit tame nowadays. Maybe a big part is covid related but losing the jukebox and having some walls replaced with ropes started the rot for me!

 Only a Crag 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

drinking, smoking and playing pool, eating pies and mad craic at night was the point of the place, with all that internal concrete mini walls cant even stomp around in front of the band properly any more. No crowdsurf potential  

 65 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

The jukebox was long after my time and I thought it had no place in a pub  like that.

I have very good memories of that pool table though.

The old bar had a piano which was much missed. I once witnessed a biker calmly lift the lid, vomit into it then continue drinking. Happy days.

1
 subtle 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

Thats one of the things I def don't miss - the smoking - in any pub - used to stink after a night out, so glad when that was banned

3
OP abr1966 18 Nov 2021
In reply to subtle:

> Thats one of the things I def don't miss - the smoking - in any pub - used to stink after a night out, so glad when that was banned

It really was so bad in there I agree but I remember it fondly...I was a smoker but always felt rough the next day from all the passive smoke in the air! 

I came really close to getting in a clinch with a lass from Corpach after playing doubles at pool with her and her mate....my climbing partner and mate was having none of it as he was lined up for the other girl in the cosy scenario...a big loss, I've never forgiven him...I remind him often although it was in the late 80's...

 Bottom Clinger 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

In the winter of 1985 (?) I stole the big swinging sign that said ‘Clachaig Inn - Open All Day’. The owner came looking for it the next morning, checking everywhere. I took it back to Sunderland. Few weeks later, feeling a bit guilty, I took it back!  So I kinda borrowed it really. 

1
 Garethza 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Bottom Clinger:

The owner probably thought he was losing it 😂

In reply to 65:

I once heard Tom Patey play "Frankie and  Johnny" on that old piano

 65 18 Nov 2021
In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

We have a winner. (My pool table memory is a contender but not for public consumption).

You obviously have been around these parts longer than me but we must have run into each other.

Post edited at 17:56
russellcampbell 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

Being a Campbell I'm not welcome there so I couldn't care less. 

 Dave the Rave 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

That’s a shame. Blood was spilled over that pool table!

We stopped on the way back from Skye many years ago, and camped at the Squirrel.

Now the collie of that time and not technically mine, loved a game of pool, just like those dogs in the pictures that adorn pubs.

The two guys playing liked winding him up whilst we enjoyed our pints at the bar and all seemed quite jovial.

That is until the game finished.

Collie started barking so they put more cash in. The balls rolled down the shoot and the white popped out of the end onto the floor. 
 

I saw it bounce in slow motion, b o u n c e, b o u n c e, bou——- . One of the blokes bent down to pick it up and unfortunately got there before the collie, who sought its revenge on his lower lip!

Like a scene from Carrie!

OP abr1966 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Dave the Rave:

I've been that person Dave....played many a game with border collies up on 2 legs watching the balls on the table....tripping up people collecting their haggis, needs and tatties from the food pick up!

 Dave the Rave 18 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

> I've been that person Dave....played many a game with border collies up on 2 legs watching the balls on the table....tripping up people collecting their haggis, needs and tatties from the food pick up!

Hahaha! It wasn’t you was it? Possibly 2005.

Incident happened and this guy strolls up saying that my dogs bit his lip! It was a bit bloody to be honest(Dog still had two paws on the table by this stage and a ball in its mouth ready to take on all comers)

 I said it’s not my dog its just followed us, but I’ll buy you a pint anyway, the offer of which was taken up.

That evening as I remember, I had a venison burger and chips, not neeps and tatties

Post edited at 22:42
 mountainbagger 18 Nov 2021
In reply to Dave the Rave:

> That evening as I remember, I had a venison burger and chips, not neeps and tatties

Mmm, venison burger, I had that a lot. Occasionally, also the boar bangers. Went there a lot in the 2000s, normally early March. I remember the pool table (just about) and enjoying the delights of a pub with several different ales on the pumps to choose from and, disastrously for the next day's adventures, a dedicated whisky menu!

In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

My first memories of the Clachaig are from March 1969, when I was on a MacInnes winter climbing course. We used the 'climbers bar' round the side, which seemed more like a very basic shed, but it was a major hub of climbing life, the concrete floor awash with beer, and it being so cold that I think we all wore our duvets. And right at the centre of proceedings, as I remember it, every night, 'Beardie' (I think his real name was something like Eric Beard??) would be playing his banjo and singing. The whole thing had a kind of magic quality. All the big names of the winter climbing world were there: Macinnes, Clough, Macartney, Fyffe, Patey, and people like Cunningham, I think, too. If my memory is correct, the pool table was not in the climbers' bar but in the main hotel bar, which I think we migrated to at the weekends, and where Beardie gave his main performances. 

I have to add an extraordinary detail here. On one of those Saturday nights the main bar was absolutely packed because another university climbing club had arrived, and at the centre of the entertainment one particular girl was singing most beautifully. Thirty years later I met her again in Matlock, and she is now my partner. But the Glencoe connection we only remembered and pieced together later, with some astonishment.

Post edited at 02:48
 Slackboot 19 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

Many years ago I was going up to Skye with a friend. We had left our wives at home on this occassion. When his car broke down his insurance said they would pay for a night in a hotel while we got it fixed. I thought it was a brilliant opportunity to stay at the legendary Clachaig and soak up some of the aura left by the greats of the past.

The lady at the bar took the booking. Yes they had a few rooms free. All was going well 'til I jokingly asked for the Honeymoon Suite. That was it! Suddenly there were no rooms left as her strict Presbyterian upbringing kicked in despite my protestations that it was a joke. To her credit she rang around and found us a room at the Kingshouse!

So it kinda still worked out in the end.

Post edited at 06:12
 Cobra_Head 19 Nov 2021
In reply to subtle:

> It went down hill when they got rid of the pie oven.

What, the pool table?

 The New NickB 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Eric Beard was a legendary figure in the fell running community. Sadly, he died in an accident on the M6, probably not long after the time that you spent at the Clachaig.

 fmck 19 Nov 2021
In reply to abr1966:

I had my first pint or could of  been a half in the early 80s. Cider that the pissed up club members would bring me outside that I was very grateful for.

The pub eventually caught on after a few weekends and I was made to come inside so they made sure I was drinking Coca cola. It was very basic and just a basic space with lino floor swimming with beer and rainwater.

I never got a decent sleep after that with all the snoring and farting through the night.

In reply to 65:

I was a regular in the ,Coe in the 70,s and  80''s before gravitating to the Kingshouse for refreshment purposes during the  90's. Many wet weekends  led me to write a new verse to the song about the Glencoe massacre(Cruel was the Snow). When Rory MaDonald was running the Clachaig

It came in the night as we lay asleep, a front from the west with isobars deep; at morning the water around us did creep, so we went Tae the House of MacDonald"

Post edited at 18:42
 65 19 Nov 2021
In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

We must have met at some point. I was at the Clachaig between 89-92 but generally drank in the Kingshouse. You must have known Lionel et al from Black Eyed Biddy. Rory McDonald was just before my time, my first visit to the Clachaig was the night the Herald of Free Enterprise sank.

In reply to 65:

Yes,it sounds like our paths must have crossed. I remember Black Eyed Biddy from my days on the folk music scene. 

 Slackboot 19 Nov 2021
In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

I liked them best when they became peas. The music moved up a notch.

 Wainers44 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Slackboot:

> I liked them best when they became black eyed peas. The music moved up a notch.

Is their lead singer still Will-I-am buachaille?

Gets coat.....

 Slackboot 19 Nov 2021
In reply to Wainers44:

My favourite song of theirs is about humps....obviously!

 Darron 20 Nov 2021
In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

I remember them from New years in Aviemore when there was great live music instead of the thump, thump thump it became.

OP abr1966 20 Nov 2021
In reply to Dave the Rave:

> Hahaha! It wasn’t you was it? Possibly 2005.

Could well have been there Dave if it was winter season....I stopped real climbing just a couple of years after 2005 but up till then was in there a half dozen trips or so each winter.....I don't remember getting bit thoughl.....my old Patterdale bit a blokes leg though back in the day when he shoved the dog out of his way with a bit too much force!

> That evening as I remember, I had a venison burger and chips, not neeps and tatties

They were good....seems pricey these days....I recall my favourite being sausage baguette and chips for £2.25.....!!

OP abr1966 20 Nov 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

That's a great tale Gordon...!

 thespecialone 20 Nov 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

do you remember the night it burnt down and we had to carry buckets from the river , what a night !!!!! 

 JimR 20 Nov 2021
In reply to thespecialone:

I was first there in 1974 remember Roddy the policeman recruiting drinkers for a rescue also remember waking up in a tent outside the clachaig and taking to a ghost .. Guinness was involved

In reply to thespecialone:

> do you remember the night it burnt down and we had to carry buckets from the river , what a night !!!!! 

No, I know nothing about that. When was that?


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