Dreadnought Leith
Four cask lines, and the branch that surveyed the bar in February 2026 found no regular beer on any of them.2
Why go
Every cask line turns over, all four from independent breweries. Toby Saltonstall and Roisin Therese have run it since October 2016 and he still states the buying rule himself: we go out of our way to get the best beers we can, and we try to stock a lot of the local breweries' beers.
4 The names CAMRA's branch found in rotation are Brass Castle out of Malton, Cromarty from Davidston on the Black Isle, and Dark Revolution from Salisbury, and the whole Brass Castle range poured here is vegan and gluten free.2 The cider is on handpump as well as in bottles, usually Ascension. When Imran Rahman-Jones last counted, in February 2024, the bar was running up to twenty beers with those four on cask.1
In February 2026 the CAMRA branch put it first for Edinburgh Pub of the Year, ahead of the Stockbridge Tap.3 It had taken the same title in 2022 for the fourth year running before losing it.5 Two years earlier PubAid named it the best Community Regular Hero pub in Scotland out of more than a thousand entries, for leading the campaign to save the rainbow-painted Pride Bridge that stands beside the door and has been shut to walkers and cyclists since December 2021.6
In June 2021 local vandals sprayed the words Gayz Onley across the facade. The pub took the insult, kept the spelling and reopened for a week under that name as a pop-up Pride bar.7
It is one room, with big picture windows, plaster cornicing and a photograph of HMS Dreadnought hanging with her 12-inch guns pointed at the drinker.2 The wooden bar underneath came out of a church that no longer stands.7 Two pieces of the building's older life are still in the room: a stanchion behind the bar and a panel of stained glass that once walled off the women's section, both left from when this was the Halfway House.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever dark beer is up. One of the four cask lines is committed to one at all times.2
- Order: Campervan's Extra Black on keg. Imran Rahman-Jones calls it
one of the best beers brewed in Edinburgh right now
and rates this bar's pour of it above the rest:It's a reliably wonderful pint wherever you go, but here it was elevated to another level: deep, creamy and malty, it was everything you could ask from a great porter.
1 - Order: the Ascension cider off the handpump. The bar keeps it in bottles as well, and the pulled version is the reason to be standing here.2
What locals & experts say
- Imran Rahman-Jones, Edinburgh Pub Reviews (2024), who writes a dated, visit-based Edinburgh pub review every fortnight, is the only critic on the record here and his verdict is about the rotation holding up:
Each time I have been, it's been a totally different cask selection, but I can guarantee that each time it will be an exceptional pint.
1 On the visit he wrote up he drank a 3% table beer from Queer Brewing, then a Hazelnut Mild from Brass Castle. - CAMRA Edinburgh & South East Scotland, branch survey walked 2 February 2026, opens its own record on the offer:
A welcoming and inclusive pub with 4 changing real ales on hand pump from independent breweries including one dark beer.
The same record says the pub prepares no food on site.2 - Toby Saltonstall, owner, on what the pub is for (Edinburgh Evening News, 2026):
We are a solid community pub and we go by a number of principles. Some of them relate to the beer we get in and how we sell it.
He puts the rest on the room being open to everyone, and names LGBTQ organisations, refugees and local foodbanks as what it has raised money for.4 - Liam Rudden, Edinburgh Evening News (2021), who grew up two doors along and had never once been inside when it was the Halfway House, describes what he finally sat down to:
as I sat with my pint of light, drinkable Table Beer, brewed in Leith by Newbarns.
7 - CAMRA Edinburgh Pub of the Year 2026, first place, and second for Edinburgh Cider Pub of the Year in the same round.3 The branch is one voter, so the two placings are one body's opinion twice, and the cider one is the more unusual of the two.
Good to know
- Hygiene: no Food Hygiene Information Scheme record exists under this business.9
- Hours: 4pm to midnight Monday to Thursday, 2pm to 1am Friday and Saturday, 2pm to 10pm Sunday. There is no weekday afternoon trade and Sunday finishes early.8
- Booking: none taken. Walk in.
- Price: GBP 4.20 to GBP 5 for a pint of cask, as read in February 2024. No later figure is published anywhere in this file.1
- Food: none, at any hour.
- Children: not admitted.
- The room: dogs welcome, board games behind the bar, free wifi, outside tables from May to September next to the bridge, a quiz on Friday evening and bingo, and televisions on for major sport only.2 Saltonstall runs regular DJ nights with occasional live music.4
- Access: a wheelchair ramp is available and there is no accessible toilet.2
- Getting there: two miles north of the centre at the Newhaven end of Leith, 200 m from the tram terminus and the same from the bus routes.2
Verdict
should-visit — Four cask lines, zero regulars, every one of them rotating, all from independent breweries and one held for something dark at all times. Rotation is the craft axis for beer, and this is a buyer running it hard: the branch surveyed the bar in February 2026 and made it Edinburgh Pub of the Year first place, ahead of the Stockbridge Tap, with a second place for cider in the same round. The critical judgment holds up the award rather than just decorating it. Imran Rahman-Jones, a repeat visitor, writes that the cask selection is different every single time and that he can guarantee an exceptional pint each time, and rates this bar's pour of Campervan Extra Black above every other pour of it he has had. That is a genuine standout on the drink axis and it sits with the Athletic Arms and the Bow Bar on this rung. It is not must-visit: there is no food at any hour, the four award rows are one CAMRA branch and therefore one contributor rather than four independent votes, and the entire critical record is one writer.