The Harp & Castle – Sunshine on Leith
The Harp & Castle – Sunshine on Leith
A "proper boozer" which I hope will last.
Welcome back to another Edinburgh Pub Review. It’s repost week, being you get an older review which you may have missed the first time.
I haven’t been back to The Harp & Castle for a while, and as you can see from the photos they’ve done it up recently. That little epigram above the entrance says “Sunshine on Leith,” by the way.
It’s a place that does feel quintessentially “Leith,” at least to me, an outsider. I wrote about how it seems to have retained aspects of its foundations in 70s Scottish football, having once been owned by ex-Hibs goalkeeper Tommy Younger.
If you Google the pub, amid a few stories of drunken behaviour and violence – none if which have been on show whenever I’ve been there – The Harp & Castle comes up in a list of “proper boozers” in Leith and another article about the authentic supporter experience at Easter Road. Both these pieces situate it about right in the pub taxonomy: As a link to the past in a fast-changing neighbourhood, and as somewhere to watch the football. Both of these are important – but as I wrote last time, I worry for places like this. Read the original piece below.
The chaser
Three bits of awards news which I missed in the past month or so.
Firstly, Camra’s Champion Beer of Scotland was crowned last weekend, and it went – for the second year in a row – to Cairngorm Brewery’s Black Gold, a stout at 4.4%. I admit I have never had it, but given it’s now won the top award four times in total, I need to get my hands on a pint soon.
Closer to home, Stewart Brewing won the Scottish Brewery of the Year at the Scottish Beer Awards back in September. And just before that, Teuchter’s Landing won the Best Drinks Offering prize at the Scottish Bar & Pub awards.
While awards shows like these are often just industry-backslapping events run by media or PR companies (easy for me to say as somebody who’s never won one), they are a nice opportunity to celebrate some genuinely great beers and pubs. If it can give a little boost to the industry right now, it’s worth handing out a small trophy and certificate like you’re in primary school assembly. (Again, never won anything.)