Edinburgh is world-renowned for its bookish connections, with literary legends like Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson to modern-day bestsellers Sir Ian Rankin, JK Rowling and Irvine Welsh all having lived in the city. So it's no surprise many authors have found inspiration in the Capital's numerous bars.
Ahead of this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs from 12 to 28, we take a look at nine Edinburgh pubs with literary connections.
1. Edinburgh's literary pubs
Take a look through our picture gallery to see nine Edinburgh pubs with literary connections. Photo: Third Party
2. The Cumberland Bar
Where: Visit: 1-3 Cumberland Street, EH3 6RT. About: A classic New Town pub, The Cumberland Bar regularly features in Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series. The Edinburgh-based author thought his favourite bar would be the perfect local for his refined New Town characters, with Bruce, Pat, Angus, Matthew, Stuart and even Cyril the dog visiting regularly throughout the novels. Photo: Third Party
3. Milne’s Bar
Where: Visit: 35 Hanover Street, EH2 2PJ. About: Milne’s Bar is known as the “Poet’s Pub” because it was a favourite haunt of some of the most important writers of the Scottish Renaissance movement of the mid-20th century. Writers like Norman McCaig, Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Iain Crichton Smith, George Mackay Brown, Sydney Goodsir Smith, Edwin Morgan and Robert Garioch all used to meet there to discuss literature, politics and culture, and to get inspiration for their work. Photo: Third Party
4. Sandy Bell’s
Where: Visit: 25 Forrest Road, EH1 2HQ. About: Another pub which inspired one of the Scottish Renaissance writers, Sydney Goodsir Smith, was Sandy Bell’s. This traditional folk pub was also a meeting place for Edinburgh writers, and Smith included a fictionalised version of it (the comically-named Sunday Balls) in his 1947 novel about Edinburgh, Carotid Cornucopius. Photo: Third Party