Another visit to Edinburgh without seeing the Royal Mile at all? Yep, because there’s so much more interesting things to see and do elsewhere, even outside of the city! Especially if you’re an Outlander fan…
Since my first destination would take a train to get there, I had my breakfast right outside the station, at the Mòr Bakery. I was spoilt for choice, but decided to go for a haggis sausage roll, and a pork, feta and chutney sausage roll.
My train was a Transpennine Express, a company I had never travelled with before. The service was definitely excellent though, and I was well taken care of, even for the short fifteen minutes it took to get to East Linton.
After a short walk I arrived at Preston Mill, where I had booked a guided tour. As it turned out, I was the only one who booked that timeslot, so the very friendly and knowledgeable Alistair gave me a private tour. I’ve learned that oats need to be dried before they can be milled, and that the drying happens on a floor very similar to the one used in the malting process!
Back in the city, my first stop was at Red Kite Cafe for my daily dose of coffee and cake.
Next was Old Eastway Tap. I had actually forgotten why I had added it to my itinerary, but it quickly became apparent when I had a look at the beers on draught: the bar is owned by Cross Borders Brewing Co., a brewery in Dalkeith.
Let me just take a minute here to appreciate the fact that so many places in Scotland have power and USB outlets here to charge your devices, even in buses and right at the bar!
For lunch—and a beer—I went to Leith Depot, where quite unexpectedly I found a croque madame on the menu. And I must say: their interpretation of this French dish was quite good!
Another coffee at Ground Floor—which actually had a radio studio in it—and I was off to the centre again!
Well, I actually went past the centre, and continued into the west end, to visit BrewDog Lothian Road, since I’ve come to realise that collecting stamps in Beer Visa 3.0 actually has some real perks!
But I was also there to revisit The Hanging Bat. Last time I was there, I mentioned that it didn’t quite feel the same anymore. Now, the bar recently has been taken over by the Northern Monk brewery from Leeds, and it has had an immediate impact on their beer offering. In a good way.
To collect another stamp, I then made a quick visit to BrewDog DogHouse, and then went on to the Salt Horse.
So, the original plan for dinner was to go to Wings, my favourite chicken wings place in Edinburgh, or anywhere basically. I had my checklist ready to make sure I’d only try rubs and sauces I hadn’t tried before. But when I got there, the venue was empty, for hire, no longer serving any chicken… How a genius concept like that couldn’t survive, will forever remain a mystery to me, but in its stead, I went to Bubba Q, a barbecue place nearby.
To finish the night, I went to where it al began—my craft beer journey at least—BrewDog Edinburgh, the OG at the Cowgate.
