The Olde Ship Hotel. Seahouses, Northumberland. NE68 7RD. Tel. 01665 720200.

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The Olde Ship Hotel in Seahouses is one of the best run real ale pubs I know and I must admit I've known this one for a good few years now!

Busy or quiet, the bar tables and seats are always immaculately clean and the real ales immaculately well kept.
Ruddles County, Courage Directors and Old Speckled Hen are the mainstays but Border Brewery's Farne Island was a tasty pint when I called.

My first visit to Seahouses was in the 1950's when you could walk from one side of the harbour to the other without getting your feet wet. The fishing boats were so numerous and so tightly packed in! You're lucky to find half a dozen in there now. What a shame.

Visit the Farne Islands while you're there too.
My parents loved the place and we must have had about 4 or 5 years caravan holidays on the trot there, when the ancient steam train from Chathill took us right into the middle of Seahouses, which was the terminus. What a wonderful place it was then. But I digress.

The Olde Ship Hotel's bar is a must visit, not only for the lovely ales, but hours can be spent with a few pints studying the multitude of fishing tackle and fishing boats paraphernalia on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.
Get in there for pint.

It's a must if you're ever anywhere near it.

The Ship Inn. Newton Square, Low Newton by the Sea. Nr. Alnwick, Northumberland. NE66 3EW. Tel. 01665 576262.

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The Ship Inn at Low Newton, Northumberland, is a dream of a little pub at the very water's edge.

I must have driven past the turn off a thousand times and never bothered to investigate. Stupid boy!!
Take the B1339 north through Embleton and watch for the sign post for Newton by the Sea.
Pass through Newton itself and you come to a dead end right at the the water's edge and there it sits. The Ship Inn Low Newton.
You can't get your motor, in so you've got to leave it in the car park, about 150 yards back. But believe me its worth it.

What a beautiful little bay with the Ship Inn at its edge. The silence alone, without the cars to mar the water gently lapping at the bay's edge, is a pleasure. But to cap it all the Ship Inn has its own micro-brewery. Naturally, I sampled it. Smashing.
Sea Wheat and Sand Castles are two of their own beers and Wylam's Northern Kite and High House Farm Brewery's Nels Best were also available.

The place was really busy but with no music bombarding the eardrums the quiet atmosphere was superb. There's fresh lobster and crab on offer but I must admit, I stuck to the delicious beer and sat outside as the weather was superb.

Marvelous.

So marvelous it was that I managed to persuade my daughter to take me up again a week later and had some crab stottie and some more of that lovely beer!