Pub entertainment in Scotland
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Abbotsford
Dating from 1902 and named after Sir Walter Scott’s country house, the Abbotsford is one of the few pubs in Rose St that has retained its Edwardian splendour, with a grand mahogany island bar. It has long been a hang-out for writers, actors, journalists and media people and has many loyal regulars.
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Guildford Arms
Located next door to the Cafe Royal Circle Bar, the Guildford is another classic Victorian pub full of polished mahogany, brass and ornate cornices. The bar lunches are good – try to get a table in the unusual upstairs gallery, with a view over the sea of drinkers down below.
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Bow Bar
One of the city's best traditional-style pubs (it's not as old as it looks) serving a range of excellent real ales and a vast selection of malt whiskies, the Bow Bar often has standing-room only on Friday and Saturday evenings.
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Beehive Inn
The historic Beehive – a former coaching inn – is a big, buzzing party-pub, with a range of real ales, but the main attraction is sitting out the back in the Grassmarket's only beer garden, with views up to the castle.
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Last Drop
The name commemorates the gallows that used to stand nearby, but the only swingers today are the pub's partying clientele, largely students and backpackers.
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Butterfly & Pig
A breath of fresh air along trendy Bath St, the piggery is a little offbeat, a little zany and makes you feel comfortable as soon as you plunge into its basement depths. The decor is an eclectic bunch with a retro feel and this adds to its familiarity. You get the feeling that servicing this place regularly would be rewarded with your favourite pint being poured just as you enter the doorway. There's a sizeable menu of pub grub, and more refined fare in the tearoom upstairs.
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Uisge Beatha
If you enjoy a drink among dead things, you'll love Uisge Beatha (Gaelic for whisky, literally 'water of life'). This mishmash of church pews, stuffed animal heads and portraits of depressed nobility (the Maggie mannequin is our favourite) is patrolled by Andy Capp-like characters during the day and students at night. With 100 whiskies and four quirky rooms to choose from, this unique pub is one of Glasgow's best – an antidote to style bars.
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Canny Man’s
A lovably eccentric pub, the Canny Man’s is made up of a crowded warren of tiny rooms that are crammed with a bizarre collection of antiques and curiosities (a description that could also apply to some of the regulars), and where the landlord regularly refuses entry to anyone who looks scruffy, inebriated or vaguely pinko/commie/subversive. If you can get in here, you’ll find it serves excellent real ale, vintage port and Cuban cigars.
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Blue Lamp
A long-standing feature of the Aberdeen pub scene, the Blue Lamp is a favourite student hang-out – a dark and slightly dingy drinking den with beer, good craic (lively conversation) and a jukebox selection that has barely changed since Elvis died. There are regular sessions of live jazz, folk and acoustic music. The pub is 150m north of the city centre, along Broad St.
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Cafe Royal Circle Bar
Perhaps the classic Edinburgh bar, the Cafe Royal’s main claims to fame are its magnificent oval bar and the series of Doulton tile portraits of famous Victorian inventors. Check out the bottles on the gantry – staff line them up to look like there’s a mirror there, and many a drink-befuddled customer has been seen squinting and wondering why he can’t see his reflection.
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Cumberland Bar
Immortalised as the stereotypical New Town pub in Alexander McCall-Smith's serialised novel 44 Scotland Street, the Cumberland has an authentic, traditional wood-brass-and-mirrors look (despite being relatively new), and serves well-looked-after, cask-conditioned ales and a wide range of malt whiskies. There's also a pleasant little beer garden outside.
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Oban Inn
The lively Oban Inn, overlooking the harbour by North Pier, is the best pub in town. It’s a traditional bar with wood panelling, brass rails and stained glass, and has real ales, a wide range of single malt whiskies and good bar food (£7) – the moules frites (mussels and chips) are a local favourite. Food is served from noon to 8.30pm.
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Helgi’s
There’s a traditional cosiness about this place, but the decor has moved beyond the time-honoured beer-soaked carpet to a comfortable contemporary slate floor and quotes from the Orkneyinga Saga plastering the walls. It’s more find-a-table than jostle-at-the-bar and serves cheerful comfort food. Take your pint upstairs for quiet harbour contemplation.
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White Hart Inn
A brass plaque outside this pub proclaims: ‘In the White Hart Inn Robert Burns stayed during his last visit to Edinburgh, 1791.’ Claiming to be the city’s oldest pub in continuous use (since 1516), it also hosted William Wordsworth in 1803. Not surprisingly, it’s a traditional, cosy, low-raftered place. It has folk/acoustic music sessions seven nights a week.
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Portcullis
Built in stone as solid as the castle that it stands below, this former school is just the spot for a pint and a pub lunch after your visit. With bar meals that would have had even William Wallace loosening his belt a couple of notches, a little beer garden, and a cosy buzz indoors, it’s well worth a visit; there are also rooms here (single/double £67/87).
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Cavens Arms
Engaging staff, nine real ales on tap, and a warm contented buzz make this a legendary Dumfries pub. Generous portions of typical pub nosh backed up by a long list of more adventurous daily specials make it one of the town’s most enjoyable places to eat too. If you were going to move to Dumfries, you’d make sure you were within a block or two of here.
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Athletic Arms (the Diggers)
Named for the cemetery across the street (the grave-diggers used to nip in and slake their thirst after a hard day’s interring), the Diggers dates from 1897. Its heyday as a real-ale drinker’s mecca has passed, but the beer is still good, the decor has barely changed in 100 years, and it’s packed to the gills with football and rugby fans on match days.
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Auld Hoose
Promoting itself as the Southside’s only ‘alternative’ pub, the Auld Hoose certainly lives up to its reputation with unpretentious, old-fashioned decor, a range of real ales from remote Scottish microbreweries (Trashy Blonde from Brewdog on Arran, Avalanche Ale from Loch Fyne in Argyll), and a juke box that would make the late John Peel weep with joy.
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Horse Shoe
This legendary city pub and popular meeting place dates from the late 19th century and is largely unchanged. It's a picturesque spot, with the longest continuous bar in the UK, but its main attraction is what's served over it – real ale and good food. Upstairs in the lounge is some of the best value pub food (dishes £3 to £6) in town.
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Kenilworth
A gorgeous, Edwardian drinking palace, complete with original fittings – from the tile floors, mahogany circle bar and gantry, to the ornate mirrors and gas lamps – the Kenilworth was Edinburgh's original gay bar back in the 1970s. Today it attracts a mixed crowd of all ages, and serves a good range of real ales and malt whiskies.
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Globe Inn
A traditional, rickety old nook-and-cranny pub down a narrow wynd off the main pedestrian drag, this was reputedly Burns' favourite watering hole, and scene of one of his numerous seductions. It's got a great atmosphere created by its welcoming locals and staff as much as the numerous pictures of the 'ploughman poet' himself.
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Cloisters
Housed in a converted manse (minister’s house) that once belonged to the next-door church, and furnished with well-worn, mismatched wooden tables and chairs, Cloisters now ministers to a mixed congregation of students, locals and real-ale connoisseurs. It has decent grub and coffee, and a nice warm fireplace in winter.
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Clark’s Bar
A century old and still going strong, Clark’s caters to a clientele of real-ale aficionados, football fans (there are three TVs), local office workers and loyal regulars, who appreciate an old-fashioned, no-frills pub with lots of wood panelling and polished brass, and cosy little back rooms for convivial storytelling.
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Bennet’s Bar
Situated beside the King’s Theatre, Bennet’s has managed to hang on to almost all of its beautiful Victorian fittings, from the leaded stained-glass windows and ornate mirrors to the wooden gantry and the brass water taps on the bar (for your whisky – there are over 100 malts to choose from).
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Drum & Monkey
Dark wood and marble columns frame this attractive drinking emporium, peppered with church pews and leather lounge chairs. Its cosy and relaxing vibe makes you want to curl up in an armchair with a pint for the afternoon. Its central location makes it popular with business folk after work.
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