31-33 Lower Cross St, Larne BT40 1JW
[Photo: Chekkers Wine Bar, Larne.]
It’s a safe bet that if you were sent out to find the oldest pub in Larne, you’d never for a moment believe that Chekker’s Wine Bar would even be in the running. Surely this beautifully furnished, elegant wine bar, with its shining brass railings, illuminated stained-glass fittings, curved oak door, and discreet upstairs restaurant in the most modern style, couldn’t have much of a past to talk about.
The truth is that today’s Chekker’s Wine Bar was at one time or another Crawford’s Pub and Bottling Store, Maguire’s Lower Townhall Bar, The Three Crows, and The Low Bar, but before any of these it was, round about 1785, a travellers’ rest pub, rejoicing in the title of Dirty Dick’s.
This charming name arose from the fact that it stood opposite a barber’s shop (which up until a year or so ago, had been there for over 200 years.) Its customers would visit the pub first, to get up enough courage to visit the barbers across the street. By the time they had emerged from the chair, they were a lot cleaner than they had been at the first counter.
Upstair today you’ll find six scenes from an original 1908 calender advertising Crawford’s Olderfleet Old Irish Whiskey, and Crawford’s Old Irish Whiskey. The business was in the Crawford family from 1839 to 1959 and these calendar pictures show six different parts of the Crawford operation, an extensive one which included bottling and distilling of their own spirits as well as over the counter trade. The present owner, Paul McCullough, is negotiating with Scottish and Irish distillers with a view to recreating the Olderfleet Irish Whiskey, named after the ruin of Olderfleet Castle down at the harbour.
The pub used to be two terraced houses which were knocked into one. Part of the property had been closed and blocked up for about forty years until the present owner’s father, in 1979, began extensive renovations. He discovered a collection of old fortified wines going back to 1907 and a range of bottling equipment and instruments, all remnants of the Crawford reign. Some of these items went to Larne Historical Society, some to the Guinness Museum in Dublin, and some to the Cellars Bar round the corner, a bar you’ll find described in this book.
Chekker’s Wine Bar and Chekker’s Too (the restaurant upstairs) offer today a superb range of wines and very fine service, whether you visit them before, after, or without a trip to the barber’s!