A COUPLE who ditched their London life to run Britain’s most remote pub say their clients hail from around the globe.
Rachel Devine, 46 and wife Jhennia Leipert, 44, took over The Puffer Bar from the previous owners who ran it for 10 years.
8
8
8
8
8
The pair decided to embark on this life-changing journey after lockdown.
Due to the remoteness of the island Rachel said they need to transport everything over on a small boat and use wheel barrels to get around the island.
She added: “It is a really kind and friendly community.
”It is quite empty in the winter because of the boats – a lot of people don’t want to come over when the weather it is a bit rougher.
“We are kind of left to ourselves so it is a nice time to chill and for the locals and to use the pub – of course, during the summer it gets crazy busy with tourists.
“Everybody does know each other quite well. The pub is a real meeting place and everybody feels a bit of ownership of the pub who does come in.”
The pub is located on Easdale, the smallest permanently inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland.
The island is home to around 60 people and has no roads.
A study recently stated it is the most remote pub in the whole of the UK.
The quaint pub also has a restaurant that serves up a selection of fresh food and drink.
While the restaurant is currently closed, the pub is open from 6pm between Thursday and Saturday.
Last year the boozer underwent a makeover carried out by interior designer Banjo Beale for the BBC series Designing The Hebrides.
Rachel said they were “very worried” about how locals would respond to the redesign of their beloved pub, which had originally been styled like an old puffer boat.
She said: “Banjo came in and we lightened it up – he kept the boat motif with the bar. It looks very different than it did a year ago but the islanders were great.
“Some of them were a wee bit sad that we were doing it but I think most people have really taken to.
“It brings a new life into the pub and it reset it for us as new owners.”
Visitors travel from all over the globe every year to enjoy a pint or some food in the pub.
You can catch a glimpse of this by looking up at the ceiling, which is covered in pinned bank notes from all over the world.
Rachel said: “There is money from Thailand, America, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia.
“I think for a lot of people is a really fun thing to do to visit us and being on a carless island that makes it feel remote because we are so used to vehicles all the time. “
September is a particularly busy time of year for the pub because of the annual World Stone Skimming Championships – an event where entrants compete in skimming a stone as far as they can across a flooded quarry.
Rachel said: “We are the only cafe and restaurant in the island and suddenly visitors go from 100 to 200 a day to 1500 to 2000 on a very busy stone skimming.
“The pub gets packed and there’s people in every corner queuing for beer.”
New Year’s eve can be even more chaotic with the last boat stopping at 7 o’clock in the evening and no other way to get off the island for two days.
For the publicans though, this means they get to entertain hundreds of happy clients.
“The pub just started come into life for Hogmanay and then everybody on new year’s day goes to play this massive game of football on the green side next to the pub.
“Then they all go for a cold water dip into the sea and then the next stop is the pub for whisky just to get warm and to dry off after the dip,” said Rachel.
Whilst running the joint has its massive highs, there have been a number of challenges along the way.
This includes securing food and drink to the venue, which can be a mammoth task given how remote it is.
Rachel said: “Sometimes we definitely say to each other ‘what on earth were we thinking’ but on the whole we have loved most every moment of it.
“It is really hard – it is much more work then we realised and we thought it was going to be a lot of work. But it is remote in the sense of just even trying to get food and drink to do the pub and takes a lot of effort.
“During Stone Skimming we had to drive 200 miles just to pick up some scallops and drive back again.”
8
8
8
