Long way for a drink

The Old Forge, Scotland

The Old Forge pub is officially mainland Britain's most remote pub. You can't reach it by road: access is via a seven mile sea crossing from the fishing port of Mallaig or an 18 mile hike across the mountains. Once arrived, however, you're in for a treat: the pub is famous for its seafood and the views from the garden are second to none.
If too many pints of Hebridean Gold leave you unable to contemplate the 18 mile hike or seven mile sail home, there's a bunkhouse and campsite.

Nutty

The Nutshell, Bury-St-Edmonds

This Bury St Edmonds pub might be tiny - it measures just 15ft by 7ft - but that hasn't stopped the proprietors packing it to the rafters with curios of a kind not normally found in your local - from a mummified cat to a false leg and an aeroplane propeller. Certified by Guinness World Records as the smallest pub in Britain, the building came into existence as a fruiterer in 1844, before opening as a pub and Museum of Art and Curiosities in 188

In the drink

Burgh Island

The Pilchard Inn, Burgh Island, Bigbury-on-sea, Devon

We all know that sinking feeling when we're out for the night and we discover the last train home left half an hour ago. At the Pilchard Inn, on Burgh Island, in Devon, however, drinkers who lose track of time could well find their way home has been swallowed up by the sea - the pub is separated from the mainland at high tide.
Luckily a sea tractor ferries customers back and forth during high tide, and outside these times thirsty customers can walk the short distance to the island.

Spook spirits

The Safe House, Milwaukee, US

Information about this spy-themed Milwaukee bar is hard to come by, which is exactly the way the owners want it. There's no sign outside - just a wall plaque for International Exports Ltd, the bar's cover name - and visitors are asked for a password before entering through a secret door. Customers who don't know the code are made to do a dance on the spot, with the results filmed by hidden cameras and shown on huge wall-mounted screens inside the bar.
Within the nondescript building, there are secret passages, two-way mirrors, spy holes built into the walls and telephone booths with background noise for "agents not wishing to reveal their exact location".

Falling out of your tree

The Big Baobab pub, Limpopo, South Africa

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a bird, this South African pub in a tree perhaps approximates the experience. Despite its location, this watering hole in the province of Limpopo can accommodate around 50 people. The reason? Baobab trees, among the widest and oldest tree species in the world, start to hollow out naturally after 1,000 years - carbon dating has shown that this particular specimen is around 6,000 years old.
The naturally cool interior of the tree makes it the perfect place to sink a pint or two, and there's even a dartboard.

(Alien) drinking culture

HR Giger Museum Bar, Gruyères, Switzerland

This incredible-looking bar was designed by the artist and set designer HR Giger, best known for creating the Alien in the film of the same name. The association isn't hard to spot here, with the huge arched ceiling criss-crossed by rows of fibreglass vertebrae, chairs that look like spinal cords and tables studded with skulls.
Visitors have likened drinking at the bar to being inside the stomach of a giant whale - you might call drinking there an acquired taste. Giger's bar, which took three years to build, is located in the same building as a museum devoted to the artist's paintings, sculptures and film designs.

Fancy a squeeze?

Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway

The Signal Box Inn, Cleethorpes

If you're a budding train spotter who likes nothing more than to sink a thirst-quenching pint as you admire the 2:41 from Kings Cross, the cosy Signal Box Inn is definitely for you. Measuring, in tune with its name, just 2.4 metres x 2.4 metres, this downsized watering hole is unofficially (the owners haven't got round to registering the record with Guinness) the world's smallest pub.
Housed in what was originally the signalman's hut at Lakeside Station on Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, the inn was opened in 2006 and, despite its size, serves up an impressive collection of local ales along with the obligatory bar snacks.