Weird Pubs: Scotland and Wales Quiz

Answer: The most remote pub in the British Isles

Located on the 41 square mile Scottish island of Saint Kilda, fifty miles beyond the Outer Hebrides, this pub serves the meagre population of the island. The island itself is only accessible by boat for 3 months in the year! The indigenous population, previously in total isolation from the world, was voluntarily evacuated in 1930.

Many settled in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia and others in New Zealand both of which have enclaves today that are known as St. Kilda. The village remains as it was in the 1930s with the exception of a missile tracking station that is now there, hence the presence of a small troop of military personnel. What a posting for the fighting soldier!

Answer: 1800 criminals were hung there over the centuries

Between 1100 and sometime in the 17th Century over 1800 people were hanged in The Skirrid, which for a long period of time doubled as the local Courthouse. The majority were sheep and cattle thieves, others simple thieves. Many were innocent, but subjected to quite barbaric interpretations of justice.

Answer: The city of Kenfig was destroyed by a series of natural disasters with the exception of the pub which remains today.

In 893, the city was ransacked by Vikings (not French or Spanish) and almost destroyed. Between then and 1402 it was razed by fire 8 times. Sandstorms, prevelant in those long ago days, caused massive structural damage to the buildings until in 1607 an immense storm finally put paid to the once fine city, destroying most buildings and burying the rest. The pub alone survived.

Answer: Each of its six doors has a coffin shaped window in memory of the six man crew of a local whaling ship that didn't return in 1821

Whaling formed an integral part of the economy in these parts of Scotland and disused whaling stations can still be seen in the area today. However, it is the coffin shaped windows in the six doors that are still there today in memory of the six lost seamen.

Answer: The pub is very heavily constructed and decorated in the Egyptian style

I'm sorry to say that this decidedly unusally decorated pub is nothing more than just that! The bar is built of sandstone blocks etched with convincing hieroglyphics. Sarcophagi (is that the plural?) abound, and indeed the pub is like a Cairo bazaar. My apologies for such convincing yet erroneous options!

Answer: A Ducking Stool

Ducking-stools and cucking-stools are chairs once used for the punishment, especially for the offence of "scolding" or "back-biting" and occasionally sexual offences such as having an illegitimate child or prostitution. Built by the local carpenter, these chairs were a means of suspending a sinner for the purpose of public humiliation. The difference between a "ducking stool" and a "cucking stool" is that the latter did not involve the immersion in water, which would normally be the local river or village pond.
They were usually of local manufacture and there was no standard her offence.
I say her because such punishments were meted out only to women. The male equivalent was "the stocks". Remarkably the sentence remained technically on the British statute books until 1967!
The punishment style was carried across to British colonial America but was outlawed by the Equal Protection Clause under the Constitution.
The earliest use in Great Britain was in the 17th Century and the last usage was for Mrs Ganble of Leominster (1808) who was described as a "common scold". Fascinating!

Answer: It is a pub built beneath another pub

Halfway House is located up the rather eerie Fleshmarket Close which is a set of steep narrow steps which themselves are rich in history. It originally served the workers for what was then a slaughterhouse near the site. One of the smallest pubs in Edinburgh, this pub sits wholly below the main bar of a much larger pub above it.

It was once the drinking haunt of Deacon Broadie, a notorious rogue of Edinburgh who was a respectable cabinet maker in the 1700s by day and a burglar of his wealthy customer homes by night.

He stole in order to finance his gambling, womanising and drinking habits that he enjoyed in pubs that included this one.

Answer: Boxing - there is a boxing gym within its walls

Built around 1700, this pub has been a shrine to boxing since around 1900. It has its own boxing gym and memorablia abounds throughout with hardly a square inch of the walls uncovered. Local licensee and boxing hero 'Peerless' Jim Driscoll (1880-1925) features heavily.

Answer: Large crosses are built into the walls

The Trevor Arms dates back to the early 1800s. History shows that a battle between Protestants and Catholics took place in Paris in the late 1700s which the Catholics won. The Protestants fled along the river Seine and found their way along the River Dee to land near Marford where they settled and established the new village. God fearing people, they built large and ornate crosses into almost every building and this pub is no exception.

Answer: It has its own dedicated railway halt

In 1992, the Tafarn Sinc Preseli fell into disrepair and was closed by the brewery. Dismayed locals purchased the property and refurbished it. In doing so they rebuilt a historic railway halt complete with platform, period furniture, life size dummies and sound effects.