I visited one of Edinburgh's best beer gardens and it is perfect for those rare sunny days

The Pear Tree in Newington is generally considered to be one of the city’s best beer gardens. Perfectly located on West Nicholson Street, with both the Meadows and Arthur’s Seat nearby, it is no wonder that a sunny day sees it absolutely packed out with people seeking sun, sport and pints.

With that in mind, I thought I would pay it a visit as temperatures reached the high teens in Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon. Despite its absolutely deserved reputation, I haven’t visited the Pear Tree in a decent amount of time - so I was interested to see if it was still the top dog in the beer garden stakes.

The packed courtyard is an absolute sun trap | National World

I definitely wasn’t left disappointed. The Pear Tree’s courtyard beer garden was absolutely bouncing when I arrived at around 3pm, with people clearly flocking to the spot for a drink as temperatures rose. Predominantly filled with students, the University of Edinburgh is of course located conveniently nearby, they were taking advantage of the student deals on offer.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to bag a discounted pint but that wasn’t too much of an issue considering it’s a fairly reasonable £4.50 for a pint of Tennents. Certainly not the steepest in that area of the world. The bar had a decent selection of beers and ciders on tap, with some of those falling under the student discount - and the rest priced between £4.50 and £6.

Outside though is where the bar really shines, pun intended, the courtyard where the beer garden is set up is an absolute sun trap, with only a narrow strip in any sort of shade. When I visited it was absolutely stowed out and basically standing room only, but you don’t need to worry about your view being blocked from any sport that’s on show.

The Pear Tree boasts an absolutely massive screen where you can catch whatever sport is on the go. When I visited, the golf was on and the screen was so big I was fairly sure some further down the front were about to get taken out by Rory McIlroy’s back swing.

Pints are relatively reasonably priced | National World

All that was left to do was bask in the sun and enjoy a pint. And after a day spent roaming around the city, let me tell you, there was no finer thing on this earth than that first swig of a cold pint in the sun.