How one Scottish pub has brought over 250 couples together

Back in the early 2000s, Michele Boyd was working as a supervisor at The Angels Hotel when she first laid eyes on her husband.

Ernie, working in maintenance at the time, was called to the hotel to service the ice machine - a job that would change the course of his and Michele’s life forever.

Clare Farr, who now manages Angels but was on staff at the time, remembers the meeting well, describing how “Michele took a particular fancy to him” when he walked in the door, but “she was too shy to ask him out”.

Michele and Ernie Boyd, who met at Angels.

Their paths might never have crossed again had managing director Lisa Wishart not valiantly stepped in and asked for Ernie’s number on Michele’s behalf. The rest is history, says Clare. “They were an instant hit and have been madly in love since.”

Michele and Ernie’s love story is typical boy-meets-girl stuff. Less typical is the fact that their love story is one of literally hundreds of meetings that have happened within the Angels’ walls - earning it the nickname of “the love pub” among locals.

The hotel - previously the MacKinnon Arms - was reopened as a hotel and bar/pub by ex-Celtic player Harry Hood in 1969 under the name ‘The Angels Hotel’.

The hotel has seen several regenerations over the years, including a £1.5 million refurb in 2016 which added a conservatory, an extension and two new bedrooms to the building.

The pub at Angels has seen over 250 couples meet and fall in love there.

Angels, says Clare, is “known for our events” and hosts everything from gin festivals to live sets and R’n’B on Friday nights.

In spite of this, however, the hotel’s vamped-up bar still retains its traditional friendly pub atmosphere - perhaps best evidenced by the “old faithful gents” propped up around the bar whom Clare says “come in every afternoon…and catch up on their daily tales”.

Clare has now lost count of the number of couples who have found love at Angels, but estimates it is well over 250 - many of these being staff. A random afternoon call to the hotel, for instance, is answered by a staff member who himself tells me he met his fiancée while working at the hotel.

But South Lanarkshire locals aren’t immune to Angels’ love charms either. “When you speak to locals,” says Clare, “they’ll almost always have a story about how they met their partner or went on a first date here.”

Clare Farr, now a manager at Angels, met her husband on her very first shift.

Indeed, Clare herself can testify to the hotel’s matchmaking powers - having met her husband on her very first shift at Angels back in 1999.

John Paul was working behind the bar when his manager asked him to show Clare the ropes. For Clare, it was an instant connection. “I fancied him straight away.”

At the time, John was in another relationship, so it wasn’t until some time later that the two acted on their feelings for each other. But right from their first kiss, says Clare, “we were inseparable”.

It was a whirlwind romance, with John proposing to Clare in Greece the following year when she was just 19. In spite of her youth, Clare says it “just felt right”. They went on to have a daughter - Sophia - together, and will be celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary next year. “Without meeting in Angels,” she admits, “there would be no Sophia.”

The pub's reputation as a firm local favourite has made it a common place for people to cross paths, eventually leading to love.

So what’s the secret? Perhaps disappointingly, though Clare has watched hundreds of relationships blossom during her time at Angels, she maintains it’s not something in the water - but the quality of the community itself.

“The fact is, it [Angels] is the place to be in the local community... we’ve always been known as a good place to go to for a lively atmosphere and a good South Lanarkshire welcome. The rest just happens!”

Far from the thousands of options offered to Tinder swipers in big cities, it seems that Angels’ relatively local clientele offers less option paralysis - and more face-to-face meetings.

Indeed, as their own relationship blossomed, Clare and her husband John found out that they both grew up in the same village, two miles from Uddingston, but had somehow never met as children. “My best friends lived only one street away from them and I used to pass his house every day.”

Clare does admit that the advent of online dating has led to a tail-off in Angels’ matchmaking success, a general trend that has seen meeting online overtake most other kinds of socialising. “I haven’t noticed many couples meeting in recent years.”

However, it’s far from over for Angels yet. “I would say that it is through meeting in Angels that these couples start interacting socially through Facebook and Instagram.”

Angels has never hosted speed dating events - given the magic happens all by itself, but in September 2019 they did hold an Angels Mr and Mrs Competition with contestants made up entirely of couples who had met in the pub, some having been married for over 20 years.

The winners, Archie and Kay Kane, have worked at Angels for ten years, having first met thanks to their jobs at the hotel.

Perhaps it’s just coincidence, or perhaps there really is something in the Uddingston water - but one thing is for certain: if First Dates has plans to scout a new Scottish venue, they know where to look.