I visited the Edinburgh pub said to be serving the best pints and it felt like a country local in the city

Kay’s Bar on Jamaica Street in Stockbridge has scooped CAMRA’s Real Ale Quality Award, which is voted for annually by its members.

It went one better than last year, when it finished as runner-up to The Playfair - a Wetherspoons pub located in the Omni Centre.

Popping along to Kay’s Bar it’s easy to see why it’s been dubbed a hidden gem. The bar might be highly-regarded by those in the know, but its location makes it feel like a secret getaway in the city.

People have found it though. When I arrive, around lunchtime on Friday, it is packed with people enjoying pints. The bar has all the usual favourites, including Guinness, but with it picking up the nod for its real ale, I opted for a delicious pint of Harviestoun Ptarmigan.

Kay’s Bar is a hidden gem on Jamaica Street in Edinburgh | National World

The interior of the main bar is small, but it is absolutely brimming with character. From the fire in the corner to the decor which points towards the bar’s previous life as a wine shop - possibly at one point a stopping off point for Robert Louis Stevenson, who once lived nearby.

Little trinkets and decorations line the wall, with bottles from the original shop also on show. With all that combined, this doesn’t remotely feel like a city centre pub. It reminded me of those pubs that I absolutely love in some of the more rural parts of the country like Aberfeldy.

The bar itself has an interesting history, located in an area that Labour leader and twice UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson called the absolute worst slum housing he had ever seen. To see it now, that would be laughable. But that was the reality that led to the area around the town being torn down in the late 1960s.

Kay’s Bar remained however. It stood as a wine merchant until the 1970s when the bar opened. Nestled behind the grand townhouses of India Street, where it sits now as a pub that feels from a different time and place, but definitely one of the city’s absolute crown jewels.