08/08/19 - Edinburgh South Side Pubs

Distance - 2 Miles
Pubs - 4
Good Beer Guide Tick - 408
Walk Inspiration - Camra Pub Walks in Edinburgh, Walk 13

Edinburgh for the Fridge but we cannot complain.   We are some of the tourists that render the streets impossible to pass and bus rides that double in duration.   True Toonies (googled that) move out of the City in August.  We know this, as we are renting their flat on AirBNB.

And what a fine flat in Morningside it is.   It means that once the laughs with David O'Doherty are over, we can fashion a walk home through the South Side to get some harder of the harder to reach City pubs.

Dagda Bar, 93 Buccleuch Street, Oakham Citra

Only pub of the four in the 2019 Good Beer Guide.

Tenement Terrace Pub

It's a tiny one roomer with a bar across the back wall.    A battle to get through the punters but quick and friendly service for my first (believe it or not) Oakham Citra.

Decent pint, functional boozer.   Now I know where it is, I will return.

Inside a busy one roomer...

The Abbey, South Clark Street, Deuchars

Very little in the guide about this pub - just mentions its corporate make over.   Usually enough to put me off, but we were passing and when I follow a pub crawl, I like to do the author justice.

Corporate Abbey

It was perhaps better for its whisky than its beer and I only wish I had seen the "region samplers" where a tenner gets you three 25ml measures from a particular area.   Good value.

Instead it was a quick Deuchars, once the barman realised I hadn't said Guinness.   A Brummie in Edinburgh, divided by a common tongue.

Leslie's Bar, Ratcliffe Terrace, Timothy Taylor Landlord

The guide is far more gushing about Leslie's Bar - a place that I have stored in my phone from my previous Edinburgh visits, when it was in the 2018 Good Beer Guide.   Removed from this year's edition, which seems cruel, especially when the serve the King of Beers.

Leslie's By Night

A magnificent island bar built in 1899 and completely unchanged.   Bob Steel loved this place and I can see why.   However (and there's always an however) its not entirely practical for the newbie.  A photo lifted from their facebook page will reveal.   I'm not that brave to take one in situ.

An 1899 Bar

The left hand side has a built up bar with snob screens.... originally so the gentry would not be observed at head height.   Nice idea, but not if you don't know what beers are on offer.  So I head to the opposite side, where a row of bar hanging seats are all fully occupied and the only way to get service is to poke your head between a couple of men who are both deep in conversation and refused any more alcohol by the barstaff, presumably based upon that conversation.

The TT landlord is taken back to Gentry Side, where the glory of the place can be properly admired.

Inspiration for a future pub walk

The Old Bell, Causewayside, Lagavulin 16

My night time photo did not do the architecture justice, so another photo lifted from the net.

Handsome by day

I'd also told Mrs M that although we have been walking in vaguely the right direction for our AirBnB, Morningside was the best part of 2 miles away.

A nightcap, whilst summonsing up an Uber.

Marriage is all about compromise.

It came in 3 minutes - making my 16 year old malt the most expensive drink I've ever consumed, based on pence per minute.