Royal Hotel Ingham
About 3 months since our last Royal in Narromine, we were back on the road, this time way up in Far North Queensland. And our first stop in that part of the country was the Royal Hotel Ingham.
For this trip we had John and myself as usual. We were also joined by veteran of the Melbourne leg of the tour and John’s dad Rod.
We headed north from Townsville on a Sunday morning with 2/3 of the car trying to forget the events of the night before. I won’t dwell on the details, but it involved a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful effort by a bunch of guys in orange shirts.
But it was a gloriously sunny day and we were driving up a stunning bit of coastline so the incompetencies of those orange-clad men were soon forgotten. And that whole stretch from Townsville up to Cairns really is an awesome bit of the Australian coast. But on this occasion, we were only heading an hour and a bit up to the town of Ingham.
Ingham is a decent sized town with a few pubs dotting its main street. Lee’s Hotel a few doors down looked particularly good. But we, of course, were only interested in one of them.
Some helpful signage on the way in identified the Royal Hotel Ingham as ‘The Grand Old Dame of Ingham’. And with the bar set pretty high by that grandiose title, we headed inside.
I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from that title, but it wasn’t what we saw when we walked inside. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the space we walked into was much more contemporary and a lot less old school than the random historical society sign out the front suggested.
But it was nice enough, if slightly unremarkable. What I’d read online while preparing for the trip suggested that the Royal Hotel Ingham operated largely as an event venue these days. I also spoke to the publican at Lee’s Hotel down the street and he indicated that same. So with that in mind, we didn’t judge the basic nature of the front bar too harshly and headed back to the beer garden to enjoy our schooners.
We walked through a corridor, past the pokie room, and past what appeared to be the door to the function area. Eventually we found our way out the back to a spacious, but also fairly basic beer garden. It had a few tables set up and a covered area that looked to be set up as an outdoor dance floor. But the unlikely star of the area was a pool table. A pool table that looked like it had seen better days.
It was a very old pool table with torn felt and questionable structural integrity. But on the plus side, there were no coins required. There were no balls or cues either so that was a bit beside the point, but still. I do love these old-style pool tables with normal pockets. They give you the opportunity to bring balls back up on fouls and stuff like that. Although I’m not necessarily saying I’d be keen to put my hand into these pockets.
At the end of the day the Royal Hotel Ingham isn’t trying to be a super fancy pub. It’s a place to have an event that also caters to having a cheeky beer in the front bar. And that’s all it is trying to be. So in that sense, it’s very much mission accomplished. I’ve been to better Royals. But I’ve also been to much worse. It’s the kind of pub you’re happy to have a beer in, but also not overly bummed when it’s time to move on. If I find myself back in Ingham I may be having a closer look at Lee’s Hotel.
And move on we did, as it was time to continue heading up the coast to our northernmost Royal to date (and second most northern Royal overall).
Royal Stats
- Town/Suburb: Ingham, QLD
- Population: 4,455
- Date Visited: Sunday, August 30, 2026
- Visited By: Cory, John, and Rod
- Beer Sponsorship on Sign: XXXX
- Beer Consumed at Pub: XXXX
- Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.00
- Unique Award: Most In Need of Repair, But Still Oddly Intriguing Pool Table
- Tour Progress: 86.2% (112/130)