Pub 146, Day 54 – The Hillsborough Hotel

By Rob

I know what you’re thinking – this doesn’t sound like a pub! After all, it’s true that not all the hotels we’d visited thus far were really pubs.

But this one clearly was. Upon our arrival, Andy, Katherine and I all agreed there was no question regarding the pubness of this pub – it looked, smelled, and sounded like a pub. It self-identified as a pub and, in October 2016, had won Sheffield CAMRA’s Pub of the Month award.

Case closed.

Once inside The Hillsborough Hotel (which is not in Hillsborough at all), we were reasonably impressed. Dark wooden floors, comfy chairs, and a spacious conservatory made for a stylish interior while not disguising the age of the building, which had once served ale to soldiers from the nearby Hillsborough Barracks.

There was a great range of guest beers on, so we each ordered a pint of APA, from Windswept Brewing Company. The ‘APA’ stands for Accidental Pale Ale, as it had originally been intended as a blonde beer, but through some unspecified mishaps ended up as a pale ale. It’s a good job it did, because this award-winning beer, with its blend of different malts and bitter hops, struck a wonderful note.

Sitting ourselves in the conservatory at the back, we discovered a stash of board games piled against the wall. We dug out the Connect Four, set up the board, and reminisced relentlessly in the direction of poor Katherine about the time we'd established our very own Connect Four tournament.

Pub: The Hillsborough Hotel (54-58 Langsett Road, S6 2UB)

Rating: 8.5/10

Pint: APA

Brewery: Windswept Brewing Company (Lossiemouth, Moray)

NEXT UP: The Full Monty, at The Blake Hotel...