Edinburgh Pub Guide: Info

Welcome to the Edinburgh Pub Guide from Undiscovered Scotland. Here you will find information about, and photos of, nearly 70 of Edinburgh City Centre's pubs. Navigation is via the clickable area maps, via the drop down menu showing all pubs in the guide, or via the shaking dice that appear on individual pub pages.

This is not a comprehensive guide to every drinking establishment in Edinburgh. There are three ways in which it is not comprehensive. First, it doesn't feature every pub in the areas included: just the large majority in which we feel visitors would feel at home or at least be warmly welcomed. Second, it takes a fairly conservative view of the answer to the question: "What is a pub?" These days there is a strong crossover between pubs and clubs, restaurants, wine bars, bistros, and cafes, and some are all these things. This is a guide to what seem to us to be the most pub-like of Edinburgh's pubs.

And, third, it is not a comprehensive guide because it only covers the heart of Edinburgh's New Town and Old Town, divided into five manageable areas. This will (probably) change. We plan to include at least five more similarly-sized areas: top of Leith Walk/Broughton Street; Leith; "North New Town"; Haymarket/West End; and south of the Old Town. It is never likely to cover the whole of Edinburgh.

A few notes. No guide of this sort can ever be complete or completely up to date, even an Internet guide whose contents are regularly checked. If you know something we don't, but ought to, please let us know.

Smoking. Since 26 March 2006 smoking in all enclosed public places in Scotland has been illegal. Many pubs make provision outside, either at the front or rear, for smokers.

Disabled Access. With its old buildings, its hills, its changes of level, its often irregular or cobbled paving, its narrow closes and its lots of steps, Edinburgh is far from being a disabled-friendly city. However as we contact individual pubs we are seeking to establish which are genuinely suitable for wheelchair access and whether other disability issues have been taken into account. If you have information to share about this, please let us know.

Real Ale. The media may have us believe that this is the age of the lager drinker, but the UK as a whole has never had as many small independant brewers as it has today: and Scotland, after a slow start in the 80s and 90s has pretty much caught up. This means that real ale is available in around half the pubs covered by this guide, and a number have featured in the Good Beer Guide, published each year by CAMRA. Only one pub covered by this guide, The Bow Bar, has the disinction of appearing in all eight Good Beer Guides from 2000 to 2007. For those who want to know more about real ale, the best starting point is the web site of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

Pubs for visitors and tourists. The format of the Edinburgh Pub Guide from Undiscovered Scotland is intended to allow you to work out for yourself whether you are likely to enjoy a particular pub or not, in part using the images, and in part from the supporting information. Having said that, Edinburgh's pubs do vary from area to area, and also by time of day and day of the week. If you are looking to explore a variety of pubs, then it pays to remember that student pubs, and those in The Cowgate, can become very busy in the evenings and especially at weekends. Likewise the two main "trails" of pubs in Edinburgh, along Rose Street and along the Royal Mile, can be very popular at busy times.

Overall, though, there is a very wide variety of pubs on offer in Edinburgh, with something to suit just about every possible taste. We hope that we have given you a taste of what is on offer.