Fort William Mountain Festival 2010

The big freeze is here. Fort William is covered is frosty snow and Scottish skiing conditions haven't been so good for years. Attention is being turned to the winter mountain sports like skiing and sledging (when I was young it was plastic animal feed bags instead of sledges, sore on the bum but a much greater sense of danger). So just a quick reminder to folk that Fort William will be hosting it's annual Mountain Festival from February 11th - 15th.


Although this is a festival for those with a keen interest in the outdoors, most of the lectures, workshops and events are entertaining for anyone and well worth supporting. A full list of events can be found here. You'll also find events to keep the children amused. Over the past few years Fort William Mountain festival has made a great reputation for itself.


Hopefully you'll find something at the festival you'll find interesting and maybe pop into The Grog and Gruel for a pre-event meet up or post event discussion. I hope I'll get a chance to see some of the festival myself

Stuck for a present at Christmas??

Only a few weeks till Christmas, I bet there are still folk rushing about looking for those last minute stocking fillers. Some people can be so hard to buy gifts for. Here at The Grog and Gruel we can help with our limited edition "Champagne Heather Ale" made to celebrate 20 years of Williams Brothers Brewing Scotland's wonderful Heather Ale

We have only managed to get our hands on a very small number of these bottles, which are individually numbered, and there is already interest in them. At 11% and matured in ex-sherry casks used to mature single Speyside malt, these unique bottles of ale will prove to be a memorable gift for any ale enthusiast. At only £9.95 per 75cl bottle, you won't want to miss out on this rare opportunity to taste part of Heather Ale history.

Winter opening

As usual Winter is creeping up on us. The nights are getting darker. The mornings are getting colder and you can already see crazy people putting up Christmas Decorations. Another Summer has passed us by in a flash and the time to hibernate is upon us. Although you may think that this means it is time for The Grog and Gruel to completely switch off you'd be wrong. It's time for all the maintenance jobs, staff training, menu reviewing and planning for next year to take place.

As a lot of this cannot take place during trade we will be closing on quieter trading nights. So from Nov 8th till Dec 17th we will be closed all together on Sundays. This is great for staff morale as we now can all watch antiques roadshow together. From November 8th till Dec 17th the restaurant will only be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Unless we have prior knowledge of a Christmas booking. Food will be available as usual from Noon till Nine in our Alehouse and closing time in our alehouse will be dependant on trade. So the more customers we have the later we will open (nudge, nudge).

This should not have a dramatic affect on our customers as the changes have been made after analysis of trade and after we have a few very quiet nights playing "Win, Lose or Draw" with customers. To view our opening hours for The Christmas/festive period click here.

Winter Opening Hours

Due to the decline in trade we will be reducing our opening hours at The Grog and Gruel. The cold dark nights are upon us. The tourists have gone home, and locals will be watching their pennies for Christmas and with recent economic downturn our quiet winter nights are proving even quieter.

As we always have in the past we will be closing on Sundays. This gives us a chance to carry out essential maintenance and staff training that would not be able to be carried out with customers in the building. In addition our restaurant will stay closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It's not all doom and gloom though. The Alehouse will continue to keep the same hours for food and drink Monday to Saturday, maybe the odd early night for those occasions when even locals wouldn't venture out. Although we will reduce our number of cask ales on tap we still have a great range of cask ales coming in the next few weeks...including Seven Giraffes, Tradewinds and Red Squirrel ale. Also some good deals on malt whisky.

If you find yourself in need of a nacho on a Sunday, remember the Clachaig Inn is only a short drive away.