The best pubs in Scotland: old inns, real fires and bars worth travelling for

Edinburgh and the Lothians

Edinburgh has more surviving Victorian pub interiors than any city in Britain outside London, and has one of the best cask-ale scenes in Scotland. Here are my favourites.

Read more – my complete guide to the best pubs and bars in Edinburgh

The Bow Bar, Victoria Street

One of my favourite pubs in Scotland, hands down. The interior might be 1990s recreation of a traditional Edinburgh bar, but it is a fabulous one. There are usually eight cask ales served through tall founts, usually including beers from Fyne, Swannay or Cromarty, plus three hundred-odd whiskies. This is the best beer bar in Edinburgh if that is your thing. For food they serve pies. That’s it, but that is all you need.

Kay’s Bar, Jamaica Street

A tiny red-fronted New Town bar in a former wine merchant’s, with a coal fire and a snug library room at the back, normally full of new town locals and rather a lot of dogs. There are Scottish and UK cask ales on tap and an excellent whisky collection. Food is served at lunchtime only – pies, stovies, haggis, chilli. You’ll probably find me on a bar stool with my spaniels begging for a treat from behind the bar.

Bennets Bar, Tollcross

One of Edinburgh’s finest pub interiors: a five-bay gantry holding four spirit casks, working water taps on the counter, cherubs in painted tilework, and there is a tiny snug by the door with its own hatch. They serve cask ale (usually Caledonian and a couple of guests and have a good malt list. Pub lunches (stovies, haggis, burgers) are served in the back Green Room.

Café Royal, West Register Street

The fanciest pub in Edinburgh with Doulton tiled paintings of inventors, semicircular banquettes, stained-glass and oysters. There is cask ale from Scottish breweries on the main bar, a long champagne list, and a decent whisky selection. The Oyster Bar restaurant is a longstanding new town haunt.

The Abbotsford, Rose Street

The Rose Street pub worth going in. A 1902 island bar with a mahogany superstructure and a richly plastered ceiling, and one of the last places in Edinburgh still pulling its real ale through tall founts. Five or six Scottish cask ales – it came third in CAMRA’s Edinburgh awards in 2025 – and a proper restaurant upstairs doing Scottish classics.

The Stockbridge Tap, Raeburn Place

CAMRA’s best pub in Edinburgh in 2025 and the city’s most serious cask bar: eight or nine handpulls with a rotating cast of Scottish and English breweries, plus keg and cider for the others, in a comfortable corner pub in Stockbridge. Good burgers and pies. Not old, not fancy, just very well run.

Barony Bar, Broughton Street

Down on the busy Broughton Street is another of my favourite new town pubs. A wooden interior, big tables and four or five cask ales, mostly Scottish, plus a real cider – it’s a proper beer pub as well as a pretty one. The Barony serves good pub food, well above average for the price.

Oxford Bar, Young Street

Rebus’s pub. A stand-up front bar that seats about four, and up three steps a sitting room with shutters. A former landlord refused to serve women, Englishmen, or anyone who ordered lager. There is cask ale (Deuchars is the regular) and a short, well-chosen whisky list. Rankin drinks here, and so do a lot of people hoping to see him. No food.

Sandy Bell’s, Forrest Road

Barely altered in fifty years, and the host of live folk seven nights a week and weekend afternoons, unamplified, in a room the size of a living room. There are a couple of cask ales (Deuchars, a guest) and a serious whisky selection – over a hundred malts. Eat: Nothing beyond crisps.

The Canny Man’s, Morningside

Same family since 1879, walls invisible under a lifetime’s curios, a “dress casual but smart” sign they enforce. The Canny Man’s has it own blended whisky, more than two hundred malts, a champagne list, and cask ale. Drinks occasionally arrive on a tray with peanuts. The Canny Man’s serves up smørrebrød, Danish open sandwiches, not cheap; very good.

The Sheep Heid Inn, Duddingston

There has been inn on this site since 1360, but the pub is most famous for its 1880s skittle alley out the back – said to be the last in Scotland. The pub has open fires, a walled garden, and Arthur’s Seat directly above. The Sheep’s Head serves real ale – expect a couple of dependable Scottish casks (Belhaven, usually a guest) on tap. The Sunday roast is one of the best in the city and needs booking. Book the skittles too.

The Shore, Leith

A pub on the ground floor of an 1802 tenement with a bar virtually intact from 1884, with panelling, barley-twist gantry, red-brick fireplace, a floor-to-ceiling mirror that doubles the room. The Shore serves cask ale (usually two), good wines by the glass, and a short cocktail list from the restaurant side. It’s part of the Fishers group, so this is a seafood pub: the fish soup, the mussels, whatever’s on the specials board. One of the best places to eat in Leith that still lets you just have a pint.

Volunteer Arms (Stagg’s), Musselburgh

CAMRA’s Scotland Pub of the Year for 2025, and the same family have run it since it was licensed in 1860. The main bar is barely altered – panelled walls, a segmented ceiling and a late-Victorian gantry with four huge spirit casks that’s one of the best in the country. Seven or eight cask ales, always changing, always Scottish-heavy (Fyne, Swannay, Cromarty) and kept as well as anywhere in the Lothians. No food.

The best pubs in Glasgow

Glasgow’s great pubs are less about cask ale than Edinburgh’s – this is a Tennent’s and a hauf city – and more about the room, the whisky and the welcome.

The Horseshoe Bar, Drury Street

Built 1870, the Horseshoe Bar is famous for its 104-foot counter, an island gantry holding eight casks with two taps each. The pub is renowned for being one of the cheapest pints in the city centre. The three-course lunch upstairs has been a Glasgow institution for decades. Get there before 1pm.

The Pot Still, Hope Street

Dark, panelled, always busy, and the best whisky bar in Glasgow. There Seven hundred-odd whiskies, a staff who know all of them and will find you the right one for £6 or £60, plus four cask ales that are kept properly. If you need food with your whisky, then there are Scotch pies and bridies on the counter, served hot, with beans. Perfect.

Laurieston Bar, Bridge Street

The most intact 1960 pub interior in the country with Formica tables screwed to the floor and a horseshoe bar you can see through from either side. The Laurieston does serve real ale or two (Fyne or a guest), and the prices haven’t caught up with the rest of the city. Pies from McGees on the bar.

Old Toll Bar, Paisley Road West

Arguably Glasgow’s finest interior and one of the last Victorian palace pubs: a dark wooden gantry with two sets of four whisky casks, huge advertising mirrors, and painted windows. There are three or four Scottish beers on tap and a whisky list that’s been built with care. Good gin too. They serve a short menu of pies and toasties.

Steps Bar, Glassford Street

Late Art Deco pub, refitted 1949 by the Taylor family and gloriously complete with a Vitrolite frontage, veneer panelling, a stained-glass Queen Mary with a Spitfire overhead. There is no real ale here and no pretension. Sit in the sitting room with the stained glass. No food.

Scotia Bar, Stockwell Street

First licensed 1815, with a 1929 mock-Tudor front and a folk tradition going back to the early 1960s, Billy Connolly once played here. Cask ale on tap (it’s a Belhaven house) and the usual, but you’re here for the music sessions, most nights.

Ben Nevis Bar, Finnieston

A Finnieston stalwart, with a roaring fire, a thatched back wall, trad sessions three nights a week. They have hundred-plus whiskies on slanted shelves like a mountainside, and staff who’ll steer you. Cask ale, usually one. No food. Finnieston has more restaurants per yard than anywhere in Scotland; go to one of those first.

The Bon Accord, North Street

Glasgow’s real ale pub since 1971, on the edge of Charing Cross and worth the walk. Ten cask ales that change constantly – the pub claims to have poured over 8,000 different beers – and a whisky list running past 400 bottles that has won CAMRA’s Scottish whisky pub award more than once. Straightforward pub food, big portions. If you only do one beer pub in Glasgow, this is it.

Best pubs in the Scottish Borders

Burts Hotel, Melrose

An 18th-century family-run hotel on the market square, a short walk from the abbey where Bruce’s heart is buried. The Good Pub Guide named it Scotland’s Dining Pub of the Year. They serve cask ale (usually Born in the Borders and a guest) and eighty-odd malts in the bar. For food you have two options, a bistro style menu or the more formal restaurant.

Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm

The last (or first) pub on the Pennine Way, two kilometres from England, where Wainwright once promised finishers a free half. They have cask ale on tap including a couple of Borders beers, and they still serve the free half if you’ve walked 268 miles for it. Food is hearty, walker-sized plates: steak pie, gammon, a big breakfast for residents.

Tower Hotel, Oxton

A small Edwardian hotel from 1903 with an angular corner tower, just off the A68 below the Lammermuirs, and closed for five years until new owners reopened it in June 2024, thankfully the bar was saved, Beer is keg and bottled with a cask ale when they can shift it, and the food is good pub food.

Old Thistle Inn, Westruther

A 1721 coaching inn in a hamlet on the edge of the Lammermuirs, with three small rooms that last changed in the late 1940s. The tiny public bar has a semicircular brick fireplace with wooden seats built in either side, and a carved mantelpiece with a mirror and an eagle that’s said to be over 250 years old — it came from Spottiswood House when the big house was demolished during the war. Look for the bell-push by the servery, hidden under a flap marked “Ring”.

Dumfries and Galloway

Steam Packet Inn, Isle of Whithorn

Right on the quayside of a tiny harbour village at the very bottom of the Machars. The family who own the pub also own the Five Kingdoms brewery next door. The food is seafood from the harbour – scallops, crab, lobster when there is one – and a very good fish and chips. Six refurbished rooms upstairs, most looking over the water, and a free bottle of their beer waiting in each one. One of my favourite pubs with rooms in the south-west.

Globe Inn, Dumfries

Burns’ favourite howff, down a narrow wynd off the High Street: the old panelled snug through a sliding door, and upstairs the bedroom window with his verses scratched into the glass. Sit in his chair and tradition says you recite a verse or buy the pub a round. The whisky list claims the UK’s biggest range of single-cask single malts, alongside Annandale Distillery’s own, local cask ale and cocktails. The kitchen is Michelin-listed, a short lunch menu four days a week and a tasting menu in the evening, all from the south-west.

George Hotel, Moniaive

An early 18th-century pub, in one of Galloway’s prettiest villages, with a small public bar refitted in the late 1940s and barely touched since. In the beam above the stone fireplace is the “Tramp’s Hole”, where regulars left coins so anyone passing through skint could still be bought a drink. There is usually cask ale from Sulwath, the Castle Douglas brewery, and a good handful of malts. They serve home cooking in the bar.

Buck Hotel, Langholm

A mid-18th-century pub, with a narrow public bar that’s kept two old gantries, a working water tap on the counter and a hundred-year-old cast-iron fireplace. There are fifty malts on the right-hand gantry, with bar meals for residents and passers-through.

Kenmuir Arms, New Luce

A village inn in the Galloway hills that the National Pub & Bar Awards named South Scotland’s best in 2025. Drink / Eat: Sulwath ales, a menu built on Galloway beef and local seafood, and rooms. [KATE: have you been? If not, either visit or cut.]

Best pubs in Ayrshire

Volunteer Arms, Dalry

Same family for 120 years; built 1870, refitted 1958–60 and unchanged since. Two walled-off snugs with sliding doors and bell-pushes that ring at different pitches so staff know which snug wants serving. Spirits have never been sold from optics here, every dram is poured from the bottle into a measure. Lager and blends; no cask. This is a drinkers’ pub, and a pilgrimage rather than a lunch stop.

The best pubs in Fife

Railway Tavern, Kincardine

At the end of a row of cottages, the only sign it’s a pub is J Dobie Licensee over the door. Three tiny rooms, two with working bell-pushes, and hooks in the ceiling said to be where drovers slung their hammocks. They serve bottled beer and blends, there is no real ale, no food. The purest pub on the list.

Hillend Tavern, Dalgety Bay

CAMRA’s Scotland Pub of the Year many times , in a village on the Fife side of the Forth that most people drive past. A community pub in the truest sense. Scottish breweries dominate; the quality scores are consistently the best in Fife. No food to speak of. Ten minutes from the Forth bridges and accessible by train from Edinburgh.

Kinneuchar Inn, Kilconquhar

A 17th-century village inn in the East Neuk with low ceilings, a fire and a bar you can still just drink in – and, since 2019, one of the best kitchens in Scotland. There are a couple of cask ales, natural wines chosen by people who care, and cider from the village. The menu is short and changes daily with the boats and the farms: Anstruther crab, Fife pork, whatever’s been shot or pulled up. Book, and don’t order the same thing twice.

Ship Inn, Elie

On the beach at Elie, literally – the pub’s cricket team plays on the sand at low tide. There is cask ale (usually two Scottish beers), good wines, and the Elie gin. Fish and seafood from the East Neuk boats, the fish and chips and the seafood platter, plus a barbecue on the terrace in summer.

Red Lion Inn, Culross

The pub in Scotland’s best-preserved 17th-century burgh, and now owned by the village. The building is late 16th or early 17th century, B-listed, all wood inside, and worth a look upward – the painted ceiling in the bar shows scenes from Kidnapped, with a nod to the burgh’s Outlander fame (the Red Lion has been a film set itself). A small volunteer-run community brewery started upstairs in 2023. It’s a food pub first and foremost, book, always; the outside tables in summer are first come, first served.

Commercial Inn, Dunfermline

Dunfermline’s real ale pub, where beer is the point with five or six changing cask ales. Bar meals from opening until mid-afternoon. Dog-friendly, and the kind of place where the person next to you at the bar will tell you which beer to have.

The Criterion, St Andrews

A small family-run pub on South Street since 1874, oak-panelled and hung with old photographs of the town, with a big picture window for watching St Andrews go past and tables outside all year round. Six cask ales, including a house 80/- brewed for them by Stewart, plus Jarl and rotating Scottish guests; over 160 whiskies and 80-odd Scottish gins. Try the Cri Pie – a huge, freshly made pie (steak and ale is the classic, chicken and chorizo the other one) served until midnight.

The best pubs in Perthshire

Meikleour Arms, Meikleour

An 1820 coaching inn owned and run again by the Meikleour Estate, with French connections going back to the Jacobites, and named Scotland’s Best Pub by the AA. There is cask ale from Perthshire breweries (Strathbraan, Inveralmond) and a good malt selection. The food is field-to-plate from the estate itself.

Read my review of the Meikleour Arms

Kirkstyle Inn, Dunning

A village inn from 1760 in the shadow of St Serf’s Norman steeple, which houses the Dupplin Cross. Lovely small public bar at the front, and open fire, and just fifteen minutes from Perth. There are two or three cask ales, usually including their own house ale, Risky Kelt, and a good whisky shelf. They serve locally sourced food.

Read my review of the Kirkstyle Inn

The Taybank, Dunkeld

On the Tay at the bridge, reborn as a pub-with-rooms and music venue, with a huge beer garden on the river. There is cask ale from Perthshire, natural wines. The Good Food Guide rates it among the best pub cooking in Scotland: a short menu from the wood-fired oven and the smokehouse, sourdough from the bakery, Sunday roasts. Live music most weekends.

Read my review of The Taybank Hotel

Birnam Inn, Birnam

A recently re-opened pub in the grounds of the big Birnam Hotel, in its own building on the south side with a large beer garden out the front. There’s usually a couple of Perthshire cask ale on the handpump and a selection of pies to order. A brilliant wee spot to enjoy a few drinks away from the bustling Dunkeld.

Moulin Inn, Pitlochry

Opened 1695 as a coach house at the foot of Ben Vrackie, fifteen minutes’ walk above Pitlochry. The pub has its own brewery, one of the oldest micros in Scotland, in the old coach house out the back: Braveheart, Ale of Atholl, Light and Old Remedial, all on cask. Food is hearty and homely – steak and Braveheart pie, venison, haggis – served all day, and dogs welcome.

The best pubs in Dundee and Angus

Speedwell Bar (Mennie’s), Dundee

The best pub in Dundee and one of the finest Edwardian interiors in Scotland – mahogany everywhere, a magnificent gantry, etched glass, and a sitting room with bell-pushes that still work. Everyone calls it Mennie’s after the family who ran it for decades. Four or five cask ales, kept properly, and a whisky list to match. No food.

Stirling, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs

Settle Inn, Stirling

Stirling’s oldest pub, licensed in 1733 and tucked below the castle on St Mary’s Wynd, with a low vaulted back room, an open fire and live music most weeks. Two or three cask ales, usually including something local from Harviestoun or Loch Lomond. No food.

Drovers Inn, Inverarnan

Est. 1705 at the top of Loch Lomond, on the West Highland Way. One of Scotland’s most quirky pubs – there is a stuffed bear in the hall, moth-eaten stag heads, and ghosts. There is cask ale from Loch Lomond Brewery and a couple of guests, a decent malt list, and a bar full of walkers who’ve earned it. Food is big plates – haggis, steak pie, and venison burgers.

Clachan Inn, Drymen

Licensed in 1734 (the earliest surviving licence in Scotland) and the first pub on the West Highland Way. Cask ales from the Loch Lomond Brewery, a long list of Scottish gins, and whisky. Food is locally sourced pub food done well — the steak pie and the fish and chips are very good. Book on a summer evening; the WHW crowd fills it.

Best pubs in Argyll

Kilchrenan Inn, Loch Awe

A small 18th-century inn on the quiet side of Loch Awe with three sleek rooms and a stove. They serve Fyne Ales from down the road, a short good wine list. Food is excellent.

Cuilfail Hotel, Kilmelford

A Victorian hotel built onto an old drovers’ inn whose bar was refitted in 1957: rugged “stone” walls that are actually painted concrete, a counter with imitation whisky casks set into it. The only real stones are round the fireplace. They serve cask ale, Loch Lomond Southern Summit is the regular, with two changing guests and a west-coast whisky list. Home-made Scottish food; the chef’s steak and ale pie is always on.

Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Cairngorms

Fiddichside Inn, Craigellachie

A tiny bar at the end of a railway cottage by the bridge over the River Fiddich. Being in Speyside, whisky is the main draw here with a rotating range of mainly Speyside bottles, plus the odd collector’s bottle if you ask. No cask ale; bottled beer from Cairngorm Brewery. No food.

The Mash Tun, Aberlour

A 19th-century riverside inn beside the old railway station in Aberlour, built to look like a ship’s stern, and now the best-known whisky bar in Speyside. The inn has the only complete set of the Glenfarclas Family Casks anywhere – 52 single-cask whiskies, one for every year from 1952 to 2003 – and every one of them available by the dram. Food is served all day – locally sourced, contemporary Scottish, from bar bites to a proper dinner – with a deck over the River Spey for eating outside in summer.

Read my review of the Mash Tun Aberlour

Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore

A cottage conversion on the Spey with a log fire, dogs and board games. Cairngorm Brewery on cask — Trade Winds, Black Gold — a hundred malts, and cocktails. Food is a long way above ski-town standard: haggis croquettes, cured pigeon, Speyside beef, a sticky toffee pudding.

The Flying Stag, Fife Arms, Braemar

It was always said that if you were looking for someone in Braemar, the first place to try was the public bar at the Fife Arms. When the Fife Arms was rebuilt as a five-star art hotel, the owners kept the village pub as the village pub. What’s changed is the decor – hundreds of antlers up the walls, and above the bar the Flying Stag itself, a taxidermy hybrid of a stag with a ptarmigan’s wings. Local beers on the bar and live folk music. The food is hearty pub cooking done with very good ingredients. Book – it fills every night in the season. If you want the serious whisky, Bertie’s Bar through the hotel has around 500 bottles and a dress code.

The Grill, Aberdeen

Behind a plain granite front on Union Street, a little pub refitted in 1926 with a long mahogany gantry and a brass match-striker along the counter. Men-only until 1976. One of the best whisky lists in the north-east with several hundred available, plus cask ale. No food, on principle.

Prince of Wales, Aberdeen

Down a lane off Union Street, with the longest bar counter in the north-east – sixty feet of it – and Aberdeen’s best cask range: six or seven ales, usually with something from Six North or Deeside alongside the nationals. The pub lunch is famously cheap and filling (stovies, macaroni pies, a roast), and it’s packed by half twelve.

Cock & Bull, Balmedie

Twice Scotland’s Gastropub of the Year, ten minutes north of Aberdeen with cosy, low-lit, with a fire and boutique rooms in a cottage across the road. Drink: A couple of cask ales, but the wine list is the point, chosen to go with the food. Eat: The reason to come: north-east beef and seafood, a long-running reputation for consistency, and a Sunday lunch that books out.

Inverness, Loch Ness and the Black Isle

Dores Inn, Loch Ness

Recently taken over by the team at Wildland (Angus Poulson, who also owns Hope) and located beach at the north-east end of the loch, with a log burner and the best monster-spotting seat in the country from the beer garden. Currently doing pop up pubs as the refurbishment and re-imagination takes place.

The Anderson, Fortrose

An old inn on the Black Isle run since the early 2000s by a couple from Philadelphia. This is one of the great beer bars in Scotland: a Belgian beer list that runs to hundreds of bottles, cask ales from Black Isle and Cromarty, real cider, and a whisky bar through the back with over two hundred malts. Food is Scottish and American.

The Plough Inn, Rosemarkie

Rebuilt 1907 with a front room CAMRA describes as virtually intact, and a fireplace lintel dated 1691 that’s actually a 1907 cast-iron replica of a marriage stone. Cask ale from Black Isle Brewery, two miles up the road. Pub food; the specials board is worth a look. Chanonry Point dolphins are ten minutes’ walk.

Phoenix Ale House, Inverness

Built 1894 and the textbook Scottish island bar, with the old water engine that raised beer from the cellar in a lit case on the back wall. The best cask pub in Inverness: six or seven beers, mostly Highland, Cromarty, Black Isle, Cairngorm, kept properly. Pub food in the lounge next door; the bar is for drinking.

Glencoe, Fort William and Knoydart

Clachaig Inn, Glencoe

The most famous mountain pub in Scotland. There’s been an inn here since the 1600s, but what you’re here for is the Boots Bar: stone floor, a stove, and a room full of people who have just come off the Aonach Eagach. No Hawkers or Campbells. Fifteen-odd cask ales, almost all Scottish, Fyne, Cairngorm, Loch Lomond, Orkney, a rotating cast, which makes it the biggest cask range in the Highlands, plus a whisky list in the hundreds and Scottish gins. Serves mountain food, all day: venison stew, haggis, a steak pie you could climb. Live music Saturdays; dancing on tables tolerated.

The Old Forge, Inverie, Knoydart

The remotest pub on the British mainland. There’s no road in, so you arrive by ferry from Mallaig or over the hills. Community-owned since 2022. Cask and keg from the west-coast breweries, local gin, and whisky. Food is excellent – venison from the Knoydart estate, langoustines and scallops from the loch outside the door, and whatever else has come in. Music some nights. A pub which earns your pint in getting there.

How to get to the Old Forge and Knoydart by ferry

Ben Nevis Inn, Achintee

A converted barn at the foot of the Ben, at the start of the mountain track – exactly what you want after the summit. Cask ale from Cairngorm and a couple of guests, decent lager, and hot chocolate for the ones who’ve had enough. Food is big – chilli, stew, a plate of nachos the size of a summit cairn.

Wester Ross, Sutherland and the NC500

Applecross Inn

At the end of the Bealach na Bà, looking across to Skye. Judith Fish ran it for thirty-odd years and it’s the reason Applecross is on the map. Cask ale from the Highlands (usually Cairngorm or Cromarty), a good gin list, and whisky. Langoustines from the bay, crab, hand-dived scallops, and fish and chips that people plan road trips around. Recently sold and I am looking forward to the new incarnation.

Plockton Inn

In one of the loveliest villages on the west coast, palm trees and all. Cask ale, west-coast malts, and music most weeks. The seafood platter, smoked and fresh, from Plockton Bay, is the best thing to eat in the village.

Kylesku Hotel, Sutherland

A 17th-century coaching inn on the old ferry slipway, with Loch Glendhu and the Quinag behind. Cask ale from the far-north breweries, and a good short list of everything else. Seafood off the boats you can see from your table: langoustines, crab, mussels, all landed at the slipway. This is the best pub food on the NC500.

Best pubs on the Isle of Skye

Stein Inn, Waternish

Skye’s oldest inn, from the 1790s, on the shore of Loch Bay with low ceilings and a fire. There are usually a couple of Skye cask ales and around a hundred and fifty malts. Sit outside with a dram at 10pm in June. Food is great, and well worth the long drive.

Sligachan Hotel — Seumas’ Bar

The hotel is from the 1830s and the Cuillin pioneers all stayed here. Seumas’ Bar is the big climbers’ bar round the back. Cuillin Brewery next door, so its beers are on cask; a whisky collection in the hundreds. Climbers’ food, burgers, curry, a big breakfast, in quantity.

Ferry Inn, Uig

A 19th-century inn in the fishing village at the top of Trotternish, half a mile from the pier where the Hebrides ferries leave for Tarbert and Lochmaddy, and the last proper pub before the Outer Isles. A lively bar, with the beer about as local as it gets – two handpulls with rotating casks from Isle of Skye breweries. Food needs booking well ahead. Dogs welcome; there’s a resident Westie.

Mull, Islay and the Hebrides

The Mishnish, Tobermory

The yellow one on the harbour front, from 1869, and the pub every visitor to Mull ends up in. Whisky from Tobermory and Ledaig from the distillery a hundred yards away, Mull’s own Isle of Mull Brewing on the bar, and live music most weekends. Pub food and seafood in the bar.

Port Charlotte Hotel bar, Islay

A carved wooden bar, a wood-burner, low beams, and trad sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays in season. The full run of Islay malts at island prices, Islay Ales on cask, Islay gin. Once National Whisky Pub of the Year. Seafood and game from the island, the restaurant is one of the best on Islay, and the bar menu shares the kitchen.

Westford Inn, North Uist

The only pub on North Uist, and a good one: old stone walls, a roaring fire, and a bar full of locals arguing about the agricultural show. Skye ale, Harris gin, Hebridean beers from the neighbouring islands. Home cooking – local lamb and seafood, on a short menu.

Orkney

Ferry Inn, Stromness

The social heart of Stromness, right by the pier. Orkney Brewery and Swannay on cask, kept well enough for the Good Beer Guide; Highland Park and Scapa. Seafood all day. the crab, the fish and chips, and a bar that fills when the boats come in.

What’s the oldest pub in Scotland?

The oldest pub in Scotland is contested: the Sheep Heid in Edinburgh claims a site from 1360, the Globe Inn in Dumfries says 1610, and the Clachan Inn at Drymen holds the earliest surviving licence, from 1734.

• The Sheep Heid, Duddingston claims an inn on the site since 1360 – the oldest site. The building’s 18th-century, the interior 1936.
• The Clachan Inn, Drymen claims the oldest licence, from 1734
• The Globe Inn, Dumfries dates its founding to 1610; the building’s mid-18th-century.
• The Moulin Inn says 1695; the Drovers says 1705.
• The White Hart, Grassmarket claims 1516, though most of it was built in 1740.
• Ma Cameron’s, Aberdeen says its snug is over 300 years old.

The best real ale pubs in Scotland

The best real ale pubs in Scotland are Stagg’s in Musselburgh and the Hillend Tavern in Dalgety Bay, CAMRA’s Scotland Pubs of the Year for 2025 and 2024, followed by the Bow Bar, the Bon Accord and the Clachaig for range.

If cask ale is the point, start with the ones CAMRA itself rates:

• Stagg’s in Musselburgh (Scotland’s Pub of the Year 2025),
• The Hillend Tavern in Dalgety Bay,
• The Stockbridge Tap (Edinburgh’s best in 2025), The Bow Bar and Kay’s Bar,
• the Steam Packet at Isle of Whithorn, whose own Five Kingdoms beers won Champion Beer of Scotland in 2025,
• the Bon Accord in Glasgow,
• the Clachaig in Glencoe (the biggest cask range in the Highlands),
• the Moulin Inn (brews its own),
• the Anderson at Fortrose (for the Belgian list as much as the cask),
• the Phoenix in Inverness,
• the Prince of Wales in Aberdeen,
• the Sligachan on Skye (Cuillin Brewery next door), and,
• the Ferry Inn in Stromness.

The best pubs for whisky in Scotland

The best whisky bars in Scotland are the Pot Still in Glasgow, the Mash Tun in Aberlour, the Fiddichside Inn, the Grill in Aberdeen, Bertie’s at the Fife Arms, the Globe Inn, the Canny Man’s, the Port Charlotte, the Stein Inn and the Ben Nevis Bar.

The best pubs for food

he best pubs for food in Scotland are The Globe Inn, the Meikleour Arms, the Kinneuchar Inn, the Taybank, the Kilchrenan Inn, the Applecross Inn, the Kylesku, the Old Bridge Inn, the Cock & Bull and the Sheep Heid for Sunday lunch.

Pubs on this list you can stay in

Clachaig · Applecross Inn · Stein Inn · Sligachan · Kylesku · Plockton Inn · Mishnish · Port Charlotte · Drovers · Clachan · Kirkstyle · Meikleour Arms · Moulin Inn · Taybank · Kilchrenan Inn · Cuilfail · Burts · Border Hotel · George at Moniaive · Buck at Langholm · Steam Packet Inn · Ship Inn Elie · Anderson · Cock & Bull · Ferry Inn · and the Fiddichside, where the cottage is next door to the bar.

Beer lists change weekly and pubs close – check before you travel.

A few Scottish pub terms you’ll see in this guide the island bar (an oval counter in the middle of one big room, from the 1880s on); the gantry (the carved fitting behind a straight bar, ideally with hundreds of whisky bottle on it); the tall fount (the traditional Scottish way of pulling cask ale, by air pressure rather than a handpump); and the snug is a small room off the main bar.

Kate – Love from Scotland x

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• The best gin and whisky distilleries to visit
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• The best restaurants in Scotland in 2026: 25 places worth booking
• The foodie guide to Edinburgh