Deacon Brodies Tavern, Edinburgh

Very popular with the tourists, this is a typical Nicholsons establishment with an ornately-decorated bar and an upstairs dining room (pub grub, but not cheap). Five real ales on handpump, including a fine Broughton Oatmeal Stout (£3.70). Overall, not great but one of the best bets directly on the Royal Mile (although you don't have to go far to find somewhere more interesting).

Official pages of Deacon Brodies Tavern, contains menus and wine list - www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk

Official pages of Deacon Brodies Tavern, contains menus and wine list - www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk

This pub is on the Robert Burns Ale Trail and is right on the Royal Mile so as you expect it's full of tourists. It also has a kilted ‘greeter' to welcome you in. I guess it serves a commercial purpose but, for the reasons stated above, it's not one of my favourite pubs.

A well frequented pub on the Royal mile which is quite busy for the best part of the day.Deacon Brodie was a respected councillor by day and a burglar by night,but an armed raid on His Majesty's Excise Office proved his downfall and was hanged in 1788.Robert Louis Stevenson used Brodie's split personality as the basis for the book Dr jekyll and Mr Hyde.