The Guildford Arms, Edinburgh

We left the Guildford Arms and the neighbouring Cafe Royal Bar to the last evening of our visit to Edinburgh as a way to sign off the trip, and what a double to finish these are. The Guildford Arms is a superb destination pub and one that should be included in any visit to Edinburgh. Converted to a pub from an existing shop in 1898 during the golden age in Scottish pub design, it is now a rare survivor of that period when Scottish publicans responded to the strong Temperance Movement of the time by investing in extremely grand premises to differentiate from the common seedy drinking dens. Once you have negotiated the revolving front door you are faced with a magnificent ornate dark wood interior and an impressive canopied bar. We managed to get a seat up the end by the equally wonderful Gallery Restaurant mezzanine level, the underside of which is mirrored for effect. Although a lot plainer than the ground floor it is worth taking a look up the stairs to the Gallery restaurant because from here you get a great view of the rest of the pub and especially the ornate ceiling, which you are now obviously a lot closer to. But as Roger says it’s not all about the décor and we were lucky to visit when they had a complete mix of Ales on the 11 working pumps. And to prove it these were Cairngorn Wildcat, Highland Brewery Company Island Hopping, Alechemy Amarillo Burst IPA, Scottish Border Brewery Foxy Blond, Orkney Dark Island, Williams Brothers Birds & Bees, Harviestoun Schiehallion, Craft Beer Kitchen Magnum Scrachi Ale, Stewarts Pentland IPA and last and very least in this company Charles Wells Bombardier. Between us we tried five of these and they were all in top condition. Very difficult to pull ourselves out of this one.