Briardene

August 11, 2007
Was staying at a friends place in Sunderland for a couple of days but he had to work one of the mornings so I ventured out on a Tyne & Wear rover ticket and went up to Whitley Bay. I asked a local if it was far to here from the town centre and it was apparently a bit of a walk but the weather was nice and I had plenty of time before opening time so I took a nice stroll along the sea front. This place is large and imposing and appears on you out of nowhere. It’s no less impressive when you get inside either and there were 9 ales on with the handpumps arranged in a horseshoe shaped curve. Some good local and not so local breweries were featured on my last trip with many of the ales being new. Turnover is pretty quick too and they had a board displaying the forthcoming ales. Probably the highlight of my Newcastle/Sunderland/Whitley Bay/Jarrow beer weekend.

September 6, 2006
From nowhere comes this superb place, straight into the top ten in the UK’s finest scooping pubs. Serves around 8 cask ales at a time and has loads in the cellar waiting to go on. Can be reached by metro and then a brisk 15-minute walk, or bus 308 (see below) goes to outside the door from the centre of Newcastle. The beer range is adventurous and includes lots of new breweries and rare beers and the pub is fast becoming the number one in the North-East. An excellent locals pub which just happens to attract the local scoopers with it’s amazing beer throughput! To get there, get to Newcastle Haymarket and catch the number 308 bus. It takes 40-45 mins and drops you off at the door - the road outside splits into two outside the pub so allow a couple of minutes to cross it for the bus back! The 308 has a regular service during the day dropping to every 30 mins after 18:00. Other buses serving the pub are 310 (Sunderland to Blyth) and 301/302 Gateshead to Whitley Bay.