Literary Pub Crawl

Lorrie and I finally managed to get tickets for something we wanted on Friday. But that meant getting to Teviot by 8:15am, or leaving David Horn at 8am. Once we had tickets to the Book Lovers Tour we got breakfast and went back home, where we took a long nap. After dinner, we headed to Teviot, where Fresher's guides took us to the Royal Mile to meet the real tour guide (I was very thankful to hear we had a professional guide)

The guide, Allan Foster, introduced himself as, not a tour guide, but a writer. He had written a book on the best literary pubs in Edinburgh a few years ago and started giving tours to promote it. The tour was a really fun mix of literary history and Scottish folk music at the pubs. 

The first pub we went to was the Royal Oak, Ian Rankin's favorite pub. Rankin has used it in his books. There was a folk duo. They were excited to see a group of students and did an eclectic mix of folk and top 40. 

We went by the original medical school, where Arthur Conan Doyle first created Holmes and Watson. Then by the infirmary where Robert Louis Stevenson first met the man who inspired Longjohn Silver and J.M. Barrie came up with the idea for Wendy. The medical buildings were also the literal inspiration for Stevenson's "Body Snatchers."

Then we stopped outside Hispaniola. Until a few years ago it was Rutherford's, a pub once frequented by Doyle, Barrie, and, especially, Stevenson. An Italian restaurant has taken over, but the owner has attempted to make it an homage to Stevenson by naming it after the pirate ship and giving it Disney-esque decor. 

Remember how I posted about the birthplace of Harry Potter? Here is another cafe that can claim a similar fame. At the time of her writing, the cafe belonged to her brother-in-law, which meant she could write there for as long as she liked.

The next cafe we stopped at was Captain's, where the folk music starts at 9 or 10. A poet named McGonagall actually died next door. Interestingly enough, this is across the corner from where Rowling was writing and it is where she got the name for Professor McGonagall. 

There was a lot of other literary history that I loved, but far too much to write about! This was definitely the highlight of my week.