Blue Blazer, Edinburgh

Compact, irregularly-shaped bar with a side room (hosting an open mic night when I visited). Traditional furniture and decor. Quite a young crowd in, but a relaxed atmosphere. Five of six handpumps and two traditional Scottish gas pressure taps working, offering a very choice of mostly local ales e.g. Houston Warlock (£3.60). Overall, well worth seeking out.

Another excellent Scottish GBG pub, the Blue Blazer continues to be one of my "must visits" when in Edinburgh. It's a 2 chamber pub with a pleasant, welcoming atmosphere, friendly and knowledgeable staff and a decent clientele. Just beyond the busy Grassmarket area, yet still near the Castle, it's very convenient for the Royal Mile yet just out of site of most tourists. Eight ales on, all from Scottish breweries. I put away a Caledonian and an Orkney this time, beautifully kept and leaving me wanting more. Definitely worth including in a crawl and somewhere to which I will keep returning.

A smallish one bar corner back street pub tucked away in the Hoxton back streets just north of Old Street. The pub is named after the Victorian Music hall singer who was born round the corner in Hoxton in 1870, which may explain why the interior décor is dark leather seats and heavy Victorian style flock wallpaper. To be honest the décor wasn't to my taste and I only lingered long enough to try an Adnams from the solitary real ale hand pump on the bar. It was very quiet on the early evening I visited, probably due to its out the way location and you need to be a local to know it's there. And now that I do, I'm not sure I'll be rushing back , especially as I have now discovered the Prince Arthur around the corner in Brunswick Place, which is a tidy back street Sheps' pub which is much more aligned to my taste..

The Blue Blazer is one of my favourite real ale pubs in Edinburgh. It has a nice friendly feel to it, the staff are knowledgeable about the beers and a Good Beer Guide was available behind the bar. Definitely a pub that does it's own thing, I was there when the Scotland v Holland Euro 2004 qualifier was on and they refused to show it because their regulars wanted the racing on. I also got the impression that they were going to refuse to celebrate Christmas, now that is refreshing. The ever changing beers are listed on barrel ends above the bar and candles in front of each beer pump add a nice touch on a Winter's evening. Fully deserving of it's GBG listing. My March 2010 visit showed that the pub still retains its good reputation for selling quality real ales. Quite expensive though with the Dark Island costing a London-like £3.20