Tuesday 9 March 2010

Highwayman arrested

Sad news from the local CAMRA magazine that Thwaites’ Highwayman at Rainow on the main road between Macclesfield and Whaley Bridge is currently closed and boarded. Apparently the recent severe winter weather led to the road being closed for weeks and the trade obviously disappeared. In an isolated moorland location with superb views, this is (or was) a true classic pub, with a rambling multi-roomed interior warmed by multiple real fires, and stone walls several feet thick. It has often appeared in the Good Beer Guide, although not in the current edition. Let’s hope the closure is only temporary and the brewery are able to find new tenants for the Spring and Summer.

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4 comments:

  1. Mark, Real-Ale-Reviews.com9 March 2010 at 21:13

    Sounds like a cracking place, will endeavour to journey there if it reopens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29 March 2010 at 08:23

    The missus and I went there for an evening once. It was really more of a gastro / restaurant than a drinking pub. Lovely place and great food, but an absolutely tiny bar area - only room for about six people, tops. After we'd finished eating we had to stay at our table for a couple of hours until the taxi we'd booked turned up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Curmudgeon29 March 2010 at 11:06

    I have to say I haven't been in for a couple of years, but I never found it excessively "gastroey". There's another bar on the right as you go in which has a longer counter and is perhaps a bit more pubby.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rob Nicholson7 April 2010 at 00:39

    The Highwayman is just up the road from me. Okay, so Blaze Hill is a very steep road but still true. I took a very sad picture of it when it closed - all windows covered in metal shutters.

    The Highwayman had most definitely tried to become a gastropub but the loss of the chef wasn't great news, then a fire and then the bad winter. But around here, it was classed as "too expensive and not special enough".

    A long-time licensee of the pub laments it's loss dearly.

    We hope that it's returned to a pub that serves food to the passing trade, much of this are walkers and visitors to the area. They want basic food, not gastro...

    The beer was always excellent though and we were just about to consider it for inclusion back in the GBG.

    Very sad...

    Cheers, Rob.
    MEC pubs officer

    ReplyDelete

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