retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
July 2026. Hope Town. Darlington. A fifth night parked up in a campervan in the suburbs of Darlington in a year; Cockerton Parish Council are probably debating me now. Cockerton, where W. Alderson & Son‘s baps had so enraptured me last...
July 2026. Darlington. Every year brings a new Beer Guide entry in the posh bit of Darlington, west of the Great North Road. Sometimes it’s a rough and ready place like last year’s Kirk; more often it’s an upmarket diner like the one in...
July 2026. Sheffield. Foiled in my search for a can of tomato gose (though the Neptune Black Cherry Oatmeal Stout at Hop Hideout was superb), I took the tram back towards RM Towers, wondering if I should make a rare stop at the Welly. At...
July 2026. Sheffield. Back in Sheffield from a cruelly curtailed Cask Camino (CCCC), a man’s thoughts turn to tomato gose. I constantly read how exciting (ugh) the UK beer scene (ugh) is these days, how folk who drink Bass are to be...
July 2026. Keighley. Just the two long-standing Beer Guide entries for Keighley; the upmarket dining of the Tim Taylor tap and the bare boards boozing of the Brown Cow, tucked away on cobbles just off the main drag. A few changes of...
July 2026. Keighley. With Day 7 of the Cask Camino on hold due to a sporting injury, I spend an unnecessary day in Keighley making trips to the town’s three (3) supermarkets (Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s, Asda) to keep Mrs RM topped up with...
July 2026. Keighley. I could paint you two very different pictures of Keighley. One one hand, one of the UK’s scruffiest towns, litter down every street, laundry hung up across side roads, a virtual absence of vibrant independent trade....
July 2026. Keighley. Well, a quiet night in Keighley Travelodge on Wednesday, quieter than the previous England World Cup Semi-Final, anyway. And then in the morning, as England celebrated qualifying for the Bronze medal match with their...
July 2026. Keighley. You left us at the Airedale Heifer, a mile short of our end point on Day 6 of the Cask Camino, with the prospect of an exciting night in Keighley on World Cup Semi-Final Day*. As we entered Riddlesden, the soles of...
July 2026. Sandbeds. Keighley. Two hours into Day 6 of the Cask Camino; time for a posh pub break on the very edge of Riddlesden, technically in Sandbeds though I can’t see that on the canal walk map. In fact, ChatGPT told me it was the...
July 2026. Bingley, Bradford. Yes, Day 6. Some folk would have finished the Leeds to Liverpool Canal walk by now, especially with a tailwind. Like me, Mrs RM knows it’s about the journey, not the destination (even if that is the Azvex...
July 2026. Kelham. Sheffield. I know jealousy is a terrible thing, but I really am jealous of Simon’s frenetic progress towards completion of the Beer Guide. It’s not always fun, and BRAPA has the really scary stuff still to come...
July 2026. Midhopestones. Sheffield. The Number 57 from the bottom of our hill (doesn’t really narrow it down) terminates at Unsliven Bridge 49 minutes later. I had no idea what Unsliven Bridge was, apart from a sense it was beyond the...
July 2026. Grantham. From Sheffield to Waterbeach to see Dad and back in the same day isn’t ideal. But I don’t really want to be hanging around in Cambridge when I could be back with Mrs RM, planning the next leg of our epic Cask Camino...
July 2026. Rotherham. Visiting Dad yesterday a long-term aquaintance said to me “You must enjoy sitting around relaxing at home“. I was speechless. I’m aware some folk do like spending time at home, but 4 years after completing the Beer...