Offering up a unique pint of view

IT may have been a time- consuming task but when Stuart McHardy was asked if he would compile a guide of Edinburgh pubs, he knew he was up to the job.

Glass in hand, the poet, historian and folk musician embarked upon a journey that would result in some 170 pubs in Edinburgh and Leith coming under his critical eye.

"I've been a visitor to the drinking dens, shebeens and dives of this fair city since I first came here as a student so I was the perfect man for the job," laughs Stuart.

"I've also been singing songs and putting together shows about drinking for years so I seemed like a natural fit when the publisher was thinking about someone to come up with a guide."

Another contributory factor must have been the outspoken 61-year-old's fearlessness when it comes to telling people what he thinks.

And while many of the hostelries in the guide have redeeming features, others are reviled or are barely worth a mention.

The pubs are marked from between one to six "dugs" – Scots dogs – which Stuart uses in reference to Luath, the publisher of the guide and a traditional Gaelic dog's name meaning swift.

While 13 bar managers will be delighted in being awarded five dugs – The Bow Bar, Sandy Bell's, Leslie's Bar, the Port o' Leith and Pivo are among the eclectic mix – top dog goes to The Sheep Heid at Duddingston. The historic bar – it claims to be Scotland's oldest surviving public house, having been around since at least 1360 – is the only bar in the guide to be awarded an impressive six dugs.

"The Sheep Heid is an absolute institution," enthuses Stuart. "It's not always been the case during the years but it's currently being extremely well run.

"Eight years ago, it wasn't disgraceful but it wasn't run the way such an institution should be. Now it's totally back on track."

Indeed, this is the second time Stuart has compiled a round-up of Edinburgh's watering holes as the first edition of his book, The Edinburgh and Leith Pub Guide, was published in 2000.

Since that time, the face of the pub scene has changed considerably due to the smoking ban – a development that Stuart fails to see in a positive light.

"The smoking ban was a piece of government overkill and stupidity," says Stuart, a non-smoker for more than 30 years.

"They should have licensed smoking in the same way as drinking and we could have had smoking and non-smoking pubs. But what happened was just typical of a kind of government bossiness that's never far from the surface."

Stuart blames the ban for the closure of many traditional pubs and the demise of a culture where pensioners went to the pub to read a newspaper while enjoying a quiet drink. He also laments the closure of Rutherford's, one of the Capital's most established watering holes and the favourite bar of Robert Louis Stevenson. "You've got to regret it when a bar like Rutherford's closes," he says. "The general shutting down of smaller pubs in Leith has also been pretty bad."

However, with smokers being forced outside, Stuart, who has also written 18 history, poetry and children's books, believes an exciting new pub culture has sprung up in the form of "sitooteries" and "standooteries".

This is where the pubs have supplied a space outside for smokers to make themselves comfortable and where many a new friendship has been forged.

"Not every pub gets a good rating," adds Stuart. "What matters is service, how well they treat their own clientele, but a lot of it is about atmosphere."

"You go to pubs for different things and you have to judge them on what they are setting out to do, not whether or not an old fart like me likes it or not.

"I can usually tell within seconds if a pub is doing what it's setting out to do. You can always tell a bad pub if there's very few people in it, if it's dirty, if the bar staff are indifferent and if it only sells a limited range of drinks."

One pub that most definitely doesn't get a good rating is The Canny Man's, a Morningside favourite where Stuart didn't even get as far as buying a drink.

"It has, outside the door, a big brass sign which says 'no mobile phones, no cameras, no credit cards, no smoking, no backpackers'," says Stuart, incensed. "Several people have said to me that they also need a line below that says 'no craic'."

And while some locals may regard the sign as being a light-hearted warning, Stuart described it as indicating the pub's "appalling attitude to customers" and as a consequence he didn't award the bar a single "dug".

"I wouldn't cross the door – I wasn't having it," he says. "I believe pubs should be convivial, happy and welcoming places and the last thing I want is to be told how to behave before I go to one by somebody who's then going to take my money."

Stuart says he appreciates that his book will get tongues wagging and relishes the prospect of not everyone agreeing with his view.

However, he attempted to take the perspective of younger people on board by getting his 25-year-old son Roderick and his two friends Adam Matheson and Chris Scullion to review some of the more rowdy establishments.

"I got them to do the kind of pubs I wouldn't go into," explains Stuart. "The late night places where the music is loud the young crowd places."

Stuart also has opinions on Scotland's binge drinking culture. Far from being a modern phenomenon, Stuart believes heavy drinking has been endemic for hundreds of years.

"That's the kind of culture we come from," says Stuart, whose stage manager partner Sandra is happy to accompany him on the occasional field trip.

"I think the Government constantly gets it wrong and what is worse is they let the supermarkets sell drink at ridiculous prices yet put up prices in the pubs all the time.

"It's as if they don't want people in the pubs because that's where they speak to each other but they're quite happy if people get totally off their face at home.

"Pubs should be seen as an important strand of our culture and should be protected to a certain extent. I think as long as the Government allow themselves to be bossed about by the big supermarkets they should be ignored."

Stuart believes his expertise in Edinburgh pubs stems from having frequented them since he arrived in the city as a history undergraduate in 1965.

He says he hopes people will use his guide as an inspiration to go and discover Edinburgh's thriving pub scene for themselves.

And if he had to pick a favourite, what would it be? His response is considerably more diplomatic that you might expect.

He says: "Literally there's a pub for every mood in Edinburgh – and I do have many moods."

Edinburgh and Leith Pub Guide by Stuart McHardy is published by Luath Press, priced £5.99.


FANCY A DRINK?
THERE are more than 170 pubs featured in Stuart McHardy's guide to the best pubs in Edinburgh and Leith, which aims to help drinkers find a hostelry to suit their every whim.

Here we list some of the high and low lights:
The Sheep Heid, The Causeway, Duddingston

"If any pub deserves to be made a national shrine, then this is it.

The curved bar, the leaded glass wooden partitions, the comfortable leather seating all just reek class.

"With china plates and figurines, prints and paintings, high class bric-a-brac, sheep's heids and a diverse range of fascinating memorabilia, the place has all the feel of a first-class but homely country hotel."

Mather's, Queensferry Street
"It has a reputation, built over many years, of being a pub where the beer is of the best.

"Food consists of pies and rolls but this is a bar where the drink and the banter are very much the thing."

The Oxford Bar, Young Street
"This pub is an institution; to such an extent it even crops up in Ian Rankin's novels.

"It is plain to the point of dowdiness but this doesn't bother its customers. The regulars who drink here think of it more as a club than a pub and it certainly has a warm and homely feel to it."

Cameo Bar, Sandport Street
"Big, flash, well refurbished bar and restaurant where the attitude of the staff is not always up to the standards of the architecture."

The Canny Man's, Morningside Road
NO 'DUGS'

"Not everybody is welcome here. By the front door there is a large brass plaque which states 'no mobile phones, no cameras, no credit cards, no smoking, no backpackers'.

"I remember when this place used to be fun, with go-go dancers and the occasional smell of Rastafarian woodbine, but nowadays they seem to want to tell you how to behave before they take your money – something that flies directly in the face of the traditions of Scottish hospitality.

"Rumour has it that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is welcome here. It would not surprise me one bit."