Temple Bar

6 High Street, Cardiff [map]

I know what you're thinking: "That's not Cardiff, you fools. It's clearly a pub in Dublin. You've finally had one fizzy lager too many and lost the plot."

But that, my friends, is where you'd be wrong.

For Temple Bar is, in fact, a replica of a tavern in the Irish capital that dates from 1840, transposed to the High Street in Cardiff. For, as far as we can ascertain, absolutely no reason whatsoever. 

There's a curious double entrance scenario on the go, with the main door preceded by this area populated by high stools and barrel tables – a kind of amuse-bouche before the pub proper, if you will.

The Photographer is so overwhelmed by the unusual frontage that he actually falls to the floor at this point in a swoon. Yet he still manages to capture this snapshot on his way down. What a pro.

About 20 minutes later – The Photographer by now suitably recovered – we cautiously make our way to the bar. Only to be confronted by this spectacle. What sort of person heads to the pub clad in shorts and a Union Jack anorak, accessorised by a small dog?

We quickly solicit our bargainous pints (£3 for a Foster's!) and venture further into the pub.

"What's the craic?" is the inevitable question being posed on the far wall. However, the punters here seem to have eschewed the craic entirely in favour of fiddling about on their mobile phones.

 
This is more like it. Pints. Bants. Not a phone in sight. Good work, lads!