The Railway Inn at Abergynolwyn crowned CAMRA Pub of the Year for Gwynedd and Anglesey

There is a fine story behind the Railway Inn in Abergynolwyn, and it now has a happy new chapter. The village pub has been named Pub of the Year 2026 for Gwynedd and Ynys Môn by the local branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

Mark and Liz Hutchinson bought the pub in 2023 and opened at Easter 2024. Neither had run or even worked in a pub before, although Liz ran the village café with a friend from 2006 to 2009. The connection goes deeper still: the couple met at the bar of the pub in 1993, and Mark's grandparents owned it before selling it in the 1950s. It had belonged to a brewery for many years before the Hutchinsons took it back into family hands.

"We renovated it ourselves with the help of family and friends, on a minimum budget recycling old furniture and fixtures wherever we could," Liz said. Their sons Jake and Oscar look after the cellar and seek out interesting ales from big and small breweries across the UK, and the pub now provides work for at least 15 local people.

CAMRA's Gwynedd a Môn branch describes the Railway as a hospitable 18th century coaching inn in the centre of the village, not far from the heritage Talyllyn Railway. Visitors can still see the remains of the old incline that brought goods down from the railway to the village, and the pub sits within the UNESCO World Heritage slate landscape of north-west Wales, with views of the surrounding hills and good walking nearby.

Bar manager Kirsty thanked the owners "for taking a risk, buying a pub, and giving everything you have to get us to where we are", and paid tribute to the cellar work that has earned the pub its reputation as a real ale pub.

She also thanked the staff, the kitchen team, the cleaners and the customers who make up "the Railway Family", adding: "Knowing other people think this place is as special as we do makes all the stress worth it."

And the team is not stopping there. "Pub of the Year North Wales," Kirsty said. "We're coming for you next!"

The Railway Inn is on Lichfield Terrace in Abergynolwyn. Look up the pub on CAMRA's WhatPub guide for opening hours and the latest beers.