Royal Hotel Capertee

After admiring the tiles one last time in Wallerawang, it was time to continue our tour. Just a short drive up the Castlereagh Highway was our destination for the night: the Royal Hotel Capertee.

The drive up to Capertee takes you by the stunning Capertee Valley. And honestly, if you haven’t been, or seen it, do yourself a favour and rectify that. It is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Especially the area around the Gardens of Stone National Park which is visible from the highway.

As for the pub itself, it’s a grand old school Royal. It’s exactly the kind of country pub we were envisioning when we embarked on this Royal Tour. Old school look, sandstone, just everything you want in a Royal. It gets rather brisk in Capertee as well so a cranking wood fire was an extremely welcome feature as well.

We got in right around 5 and found our rooms. The rooms were nice enough for pub accommodation. Slightly concerning was the warning about how the pub had already burnt down previously. Twice. But after a quick check of all the electrical appliances, we headed down to set up shop in the front bar.

The bar itself featured local beer from nearby Mudgee, and local whiskey from the even more nearby distillery-just-behind-the-pub. The distillery (Craft Works Distillery) has an especially good reputation. I didn’t get a chance to sample any (for reasons that will become clear shortly) but John reckoned it was pretty good.

We settled down right in front of the big screen for some Friday night NRL with some of the local beer (good but not great). It’s a good thing we got in when we did too. Because the Royal Hotel Capertee is clearly the centre of activity in the town, especially on a Friday night. Given the town of Capertee has a population of 145, I’d say we were close to 50% of the town in the pub on the night.

Unfortunately, as the pub started to fill with vibrancy, I quickly started to lose mine. After hearing John ask ‘dude, are you sure you’re ok’ for about the third time in 10 minutes I decided an early night might not be a bad idea. I was struck down with what I would later discover was a nasty virus that would stay with me for the rest of this leg of the tour. John kicked on for a bit that evening, but that was the end of my night and, since I’m the one writing, that’s unfortunately the end of this post.

But despite feeling like absolute crap for a good percentage of my time there, I genuinely enjoyed the Royal Hotel Capertee. I would definitely go back. Old school vibe, local beer and spirits, lively and friendly locals; what more do you want? It’s just a cool pub.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Capertee, NSW
• Population: 145
• Date Visited: Friday, May 5, 2023
• Visited By: Cory, John
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: None
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Three Tails Brewery Three Little Pigs Pale Ale
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.50
• Unique Award: Most Often Burnt Down Royal
• Tour Progress: 23.5% (32/136)