The Dagda Bar.

The Dagda Bar

The counter takes up at least a third of the floor, and the gantry mirrors disappear behind pump clips.4

Why go

CAMRA's branch record puts the room in an eighteenth-century tenement terrace, one small ground-floor bar with a stone-flagged floor and a mirrored gantry whose joins into the cornice have been blurred by a collection of pump clips.4 Time Out ranked it 21st in The 22 best pubs in the UK on 24 July 2026, a list edited by Ed Cunningham and built from the masthead's UK network of contributors. Read end to end, that list holds exactly two Edinburgh pubs, this one and the Brass Monkey on Drummond Street.1 The one beer CAMRA logs as permanent is Oakham Citra, and the guest lines turn over beside it.4

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Citra if you want the known quantity, or whatever guest has landed. Time Out Edinburgh calls it a great selection of rotating guest ales, plenty of whiskies and craft beer on tap.2 Nobody counts the cask lines, so the size of the rotation is unknown here.
• Avoid: Tuesday evening if you came to talk. CAMRA notes the bar is busiest then because of the quiz, and Time Out warns that the pub quizzes get extremely competitive.1

What locals & experts say

• Time Out UK (24 July 2026), 21st of 22: Lively atmosphere, cold pints, dog-friendly. Those are the three main draws of The Dagda Bar and, honestly, what more could you ask for from a pub? The same entry says it fills with locals and is well worth seeking out if you're in Edinburgh on a day trip and gagging for a pint.1
• The Skinny, 2026 Edinburgh guide, on where the value sits: Its craft beer game is strong, but its trump card is its atmosphere. Gather round one of its barrels with pals and you're guaranteed a good night.3
• Time Out Edinburgh on the room: It may be small, but Dagda charms with its old-fashioned interior, stained glass and giant wooden barrels in the centre of the room. It adds that the bar stays popular with locals and does not overflow with students despite sitting next to the university.2

Good to know

• Timing: 3pm to midnight Monday and Tuesday, 1pm to 1am Wednesday to Saturday, 1pm to midnight Sunday.4
• Booking: none to make. Walk in.
• Under 18s: not admitted.4
• Getting there: Buccleuch Street runs south off the Meadows end of Nicolson Street, five minutes from the university's George Square buildings.
• Hygiene. The Food Hygiene Information Scheme rating on this door is a Pass inspected 10 January 2011. Fifteen years is long enough that the result describes nothing you would encounter today, so treat it as missing information and judge the room yourself. No second food business is registered here.5

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: Not one of my saves.

Verdict

could-visit — Time Out put this bar 21st among the 22 best pubs in the UK for 2026, and it is one of only two Edinburgh rooms on that list, which is a real national placing for a small student-quarter tenement bar. What you walk into is an eighteenth-century ground-floor room with a stone-flagged floor, a rectangular counter taking up at least a third of it, and a mirrored gantry you can barely see for pump clips. The Skinny's 2026 guide is blunt that the atmosphere is the draw and the craft beer is the support act, which matches every other account of the place. That is a good local worth walking to if you are in Newington or the university quarter. It goes no higher because nobody with a byline has reviewed it: three roundups describe it and none of them evaluates the pour, CAMRA records a single permanent beer and no rotation count, and the hygiene rating on the door was inspected in January 2011.