In addition to the dedication to sampling local ales, we tried to partake of local/regional food wherever possible. Not quite as successful, but we did manage the following:

Scottish Shortbread – all through Scotland
Scotch Pies – wherever we found them
Oatcakes – Muir of Ord
Haggis (and chips) – Fort William
Isle of Skye Black Pudding – Glencoe
Bridies – New Cumnock
Assorted Jalfrezi’s – Gourock
Kendall mintcake – Kendall
Filled Yorkshire Puds -Warrington (well it’s close-ish)
Cornish Pasties – Land’s End

Unfotunately didn’t stop in Chorley for Chorley cakes…..

Part of our challenge incorporated the need to replenish liquids and carbohydrates. There is no better way to do this than that old British faithful – beer!. In the spirit of the journey, we made a serious effort to sample local ales wherever possible.
This wasn’t always so easy to achieve, but special mention goes to two places in particular:
Firstly, the Claghaig Inn in Glencoe (the village that is, not the vale of Glen Coe). They had a fantastic range of ales (we duly sampled the lot), confusingly renamed for the night with ridiculous Aussie titles, to complement the Aussie folk band who entertained us so well.
Secondly Base Camp Monmouth, where Paul had gone to lengths to search out some local bottled ales for us to relax with (credit also to the policies of the Waitrose Beer buyers in supporting local breweries – just as important as supporting local farmers in my book)

Anyway, here’s the list for any beer addicts to salivate over:

Deuchars IPA (Caledonian Brewery)
Tennents Ember 80/- (Wellpark, Glasgow)
Red Cuillin (Isle of Skye Brewing Company)
Tradewinds ( Cairngorm Brewery, Inverness)
Black & Tan (Houston Brewing Co., Houston, Renfrewshire)
Seven Giraffes (Williams Bros. Brewing Co. Alloa)
Skye light (Isle of Skye Brewing Company)
Rambo the Mighty Midge (Houston Brewing Co., Houston, Renfrewshire)
Peter’s Well (Houston Brewing Co., Houston, Renfrewshire
Belhaven Best (Belhaven Brewery)
Ball’s Up – Tirril Brewery, Cumbria
Traditional Cumberland Ale – Jennings Brewery, Cockermouth
Bombardier (Charles Wells)
Cotleigh Kiwi (Cotleigh Brewery, Wiveliscombe, Somerset)
Wye Valley HPA (Wye Valley Brewery, Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire)
Ludlow Best (Ludlow Brewing Co.)
Butty Bach (Wye Valley Brewery, Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire)
Wild Hare (Bath Ales, Warmley, Bristol)
Dorothy Goodbody’s Country Ale (Wye Valley Brewery, Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire)
1503 (Kingstone Brewery, Tintern, Monmouth )
Barnstormer (Bath Ales, Warmley, Bristol)
Classic Bitter (Kingstone Brewery, Tintern, Monmouth )
Hobgoblin (Wychwood Brewery, Witney, Oxfordshire)
Lizard Bitter (Lizard Ales, St Keverne, Lizard peninsula)
Doom Bar (Sharps Brewery, Rock, Cornwall)

Ian sampled two local malts in Lochmaben (sorry, dinna ken the names) and when times were hard, we made do with Stella, Murphy’s, Strongbow & Kronenburg. A job well done I reckon……..