The blinds are down on
another Rhuthun/Ruthin café. The Castle Park Café has closed. It's on the market but the for sale sign actually now reads "Let Agreed". Maybe this refers to the flats above. The current owners have decided to retire after 13 years there, and the future of the premises seems uncertain. Recently, there have been multiple changes to other town centre cafés. The boards between floors remind us that the premises is one of Rhuthun's oldest-established traders, albeit under different owners. They say that it has been trading as a café for almost 50 years and since the signs have been up for some time, we can conclude that it has been now been more than 50.
After seven months, The Farmers Arms no longer serves food. This is a great pity because it was one place in Rhuthun/Ruthin where you could get honest, reasonably priced bite that was to a high standard. There were few pretentions, just ordinary food. Unlike Wetherspoon's that offered food at similar prices, that at the Farmers was always well presented and always tasty. The food side was run as a separate business. Regulars will confirm that, after a good start, perhaps down to curiosity, numbers had dropped and it was latterly the chef himself who used to serve his own food. Try finding a pub, other than Wetherspoon's, serving reasonably priced food. Then try to find one that seemed to care about detail.
Is Castle Bell returning to becoming a
newsagent? After repositioning itself as a corner-type shop selling basic food, some alcohol, other convenience products as well as newspapers and a rather reduced range of magazines, its shelves continue to look bare.
On the other hand, Ruthin Wholefoods, now
under new management, is at last restocking. There are new lines within and you can purchase a limited range of
locally-grown vegetables.
Is this Rhuthun's newest estate agent? For sale within the former Santander premises are a small number of second hand dolls houses for sale—plus a human-sized mattress.
