Cheers for Ayr’s pub heaven Everywhere there was a hostelry
Street. Which pubs would be down my ‘ Memory Lane’?
My list would have to start with Christina’s Bar in Mill Street . . . when it was actually owned by Christina!
She probably drank more than her customers - a bottle of Asbach bandy at a time – but she still ran a great pub.
Christina’s boasted the best bar lunch in town and on Saturdays, a queue formed outside for a table.
Unfortunately for the old girl, her customers included a couple of tax inspectors who wondered why her huge food sales weren’t . . . er . . . lets say . . . ‘ reflected’ in her tax return! Rumour had it that she had to sell up to repay HMRC!
Rabbies Bar – back in the days when David Cosh had the keys and Davie Gibson poured the pints – would be another pub down my Memory Lane.
But I have to confess that most of my youthful drinking was in hotel bars – because that’s where the girls were. Darts and dominoes never did it for me.
The Ferryboat Bar at the Gartferry Hotel was a hot spot – and it’s gone as well.
Or there were the midweek disco nights at the Abbotsford Hotel – and I’m sure the same Forbes Robertson was the DJ at many of them.
A group of us created a “hotel crawl” that took in The Old Racecourse, The Chestnuts and The Abbotsford. It became known as The Bacardi Triangle . . . because there was always someone going missing!
Happy days – and sometimes it was a happy daze - but Ayr did boast some great watering holes.
And . . . ahem . . . there are still a few left.
I just hope that in the grand design for Ayr’s rejuvenation – somebody remembers to stick apub into the ‘ River Square’ development!