The Ship Inn, Melrose

Described by a local that I got chatting to at the bar as the only pub left in Melrose - he considers all the others to be hotels. I could see what he meant, as the pub was busy when I came in with the sort of crowd that you don't get in a hotel bar, only in a pub. The pub goes much deeper than the street approach suggests, with several rooms and a beer garden. Just the one real ale available, and it was the same Belhaven IPA that I'd just had at the Station Hotel, but considerably cheaper here at £1.45 a half compared with £1.75.