This thread was originally written and published in November 2019. It has been lightly edited and corrected as applicable for this post.

In December 2019, the Edinburgh Evening News ran an article about a new brewery planned for the city which it claimed “will be the first major brewery to be built in Edinburgh for 150 years.” be. By my count (Luckily, I keep a handy spreadsheet of such things) there were 16 major breweries built in Edinburgh in the last 150 years. So let’s take a closer look.

In at number 16 is the Caledonian Brewery – universally known as The Caley – opened by Lorimer and Clark 150 years ago in 1869 in Shandon and still going strong currently under threat of closure by owners Heineken.

At number 15, G. & J. Machlachlan’s Castle Brewery opened in the Grassmarket in 1875, some 144 years ago. It relocated out to Craigmillar in 1907.

A non-mover at number 14, Jeffrey’s opened the New Heriot brewery at Roseburn in 1880. It carried on brewing until 1992, latterly an outpost of Tennent’s.

Sneaking in at number 13, Murray’s opened the Craigmillar No. 1 brewery (funnily enough, the first in the Craigmillar brewing suburb) in 1886, 133 years ago.

Holding steady at number 12, Thomas & James Bernard opened the New Edinburgh brewery in Gorgie in 1888, it was bought up by Scottish Brewers in 1960 and shut down to reduce the competition and industry over-capacity.

At 11, the Edinburgh United Breweries of 1889. They consolidated some existing brewers and the assets were acquired by Jeffrey’s in 1935 after what was (at that point) the UK’s largest tax duty scandal to date (they had been brewing off the record out of hours for years). Bells, McMillans, Dishers and Ritchies were the 4 breweries that formed Edinburgh United. McMillan’s site was demolished, Disher’s was sold off, and brewing took place at the Bell’s site in the Pleasance and Ritchie’s in Abbeyhill.

A new entrant at 10, Daniel Bernard was a son of T. & J. but fell out with the other inheritors of that business and set himself up along the road in 1893. The business failed in 1904 and became a distillery, it’s now part of the Macfarlan Smith pharmaceuticals site at Gorgie.

At 9, Drybrough’s were one of the bigger Edinburgh brewers and joined the Craigmillar suburb in 1895. They were bought out by Watney Mann in 1965 as the big English brewers moved north of the border and were closed by Allied Lyons in 1987. Most of the brewery buildings remain .

In at 8, Pattison’s were a big Leith distiller and bottler and entered the brewery market in 1896 at Craigmillar. The Pattison empire was built on sand at collapsed in 1899, the brewery assets were taken over by Robert Deuchar.

Up one at 7, John Somerville joined the Craigmillar party in 1897 with the North British Brewery. Murray’s took it over as Craigmillar No. 2 in 1922. United Breweries took over Murrays in 1960 and shut down No. 2 the following year.

Straight in at 6, Robert Deuchar (whose name would later be given to that pioneer India Pale Ale of the beer revival in Edinburgh) built their own premises at Craigmillar in 1899 to complement those bought from Pattisons. Deuchars – a Scottish family name – were established in Newcastle in 1888 and moved into Edinburgh in 1899, transferring all brewing north in 1920, but keeping public houses in the northeast of England. They were bought by Newcastle Brewers in 1954 and closed by Scottish & Newcastle in 1961.

Top 5 territory now. T. Y. Patterson opened the Pentland Brewery, the smallest of the Craigmillar breweries in 1899. They were bought out by Edinburgh brewer Aitken in 1936 and the site was used for other purposes. Only the gates remain.

Another entry for Maclachlans in at 4. They moved from the Grassmarket to Duddingston (a bigger site, a more modern brewery and a rail connection beckoned) in 1901 at the New Castle Brewery. Closed in 1967 under the ownership of Bass Charrington.

A new entry at 3, W & J Raeburn were the last brewery to open at Craigmillar 118 years ago in 1901. Bought by Robert Youngers in 1913, the War Office took it over in 1939 to produce industrial yeast. It later found its way into the S&N empire

Just missing out on the top spot, Mackay’s opened the St. Leonard’s Brewery (at St. Leonards) as late as 1908. By 1963 it was in the hands of Watney Mann who took on the licensed premises to supply with their own beer and shut down the brewery. “The Real Mackay!”

And no surprises at no. 1, Scottish and Newcastle built the ultra modern Fountain Brewery in 1973, to replace a site of the same name a little bit along and on the other side of the road. S&N dominated the Scottish brewing scene and then slowly tried to kill it. It almost did.

Footnote. My personal ambivalence towards S&N is sincere. I have absolutely nothing against Innis & Gunn. Personally I think their beers taste of a mix of soap and marshmallows, but I also really like Tennent’s lager so I’m no authority on the matter of what “good beer” tastes like.

The graph below charts the rise and fall of the brewing industry in Edinburgh. There may be a few inaccuracies at the earlier end, and some of the closure dates are estimates, but it can be seen that by numbers alone, the 1890s were the peak.

It’s worth nothing that many of these were, even by the standard of the day, relatively small and overall production would have increased into the 1960s due to modernisation and closure of older, smaller, less-efficient breweries as the industry consolidated.

But in terms of numbers and production, Edinburgh was 2nd only to Burton-on-Trent as the Empire’s 2nd city of brewing. Most cities had breweries but they generally served only the local market. Edinburgh was notable to have brewers serving not just Scotland but the world. The McEwan’s logo, before the laughing Cavalier, was this self-confident declaration of the Globe being supported by the strong hand of the Union Flag and the Royal Standard. This was as a result of the importance to McEwan’s business of export and military sales.

McEwan’s was one half of what became, Scottish Brewers in 1931, when they merged with biggest rivals William Youngers of Holyrood. (The Younger and McEwans families, including Robert Younger of Abbeyhill and George Younger of Alloa, were all extended family relations of eachother through marriage, as were the Jeffreys of the Heriot Brewery). Scottish Brewers were the dominant brewing and public house force in both Edinburgh and Scotland.

The Edinburgh brewers had good connections to the north of England, who were but a few hours away on the train and where there was a ready market of thirsty miners and shipbuilders. It was natural that as the industry consolidated in the 1960s that Scottish Brewers merged with Newcastle Brewers to form S&N.

My (great) Uncle Joe was an S&N publican and spent a good part of his career in County Durham area selling beer to miners, until the fallout of the miners strike suddenly meant there was little money to go round.

If you look in the right places, it’s not hard to find the evidence of all those old breweries. Melvin’s brewery at Boroughloch (if you get a chance to see it, the office unit off Boroughloch Lane has a cracking frosted glass window)

Gordon & Blair’s Balmoral Brewery on what is now Calton Road. This place always struggled financially (apparently due to water supply problems) and the site was used for maltings or sublet to other brewers for much of its history.

Robert Younger brewed at St. Ann’s in Abbeyhill. Look for the RY monogram above the door.

Campbell, Hope & King were an ancient name in brewing and distilling, they brewed off Chambers Street, the buildings have now been incorporated into the University

Maclachlan’s started out in Glasgow but brewing shifted to Edinburgh. Their first site was off the Grassmarket. This building later became a mining research laboratory for the Lothian coal companies, and then a central mines rescue station. It now belongs to George Heriot’s school I believe.

Jeffrey’s named their brewery the Heriot, after that noted wealthy Edinburgh goldsmith and philanthropist – Jinglin’ Geordie – whose land it was built near. Coincidentally it is built on top of the “Crawley Pipe” which brought water into the town. That little brown wooden door you can see to the left of the gateway gives access to the conduit in which the pipe runs.

Someone later built the King’s Theatre on top of it, but Taylor, Macleod & Co. brewed on the old site of Drumdryan House, the name you can still see on the neighbouring street. Drumdryan comes from the Gaelic – Druim drioghion – a ridge covered in thorn bushes, describing the local topography at one time. Intrerestingly the nearby street Thorniebauk comes from the Scots meaning exactly the same, also called Brierybauk at one time.

Steel, Coulson & Co. brewed at the Croft-an-Righ brewery at Abbeyhill, next door to Robert Younger (St. Ann’s brewery). Croft-an-Righ, named for the adjacent old house, at first glance seems Gaelic (King’s Field) but is a romantic corruption of an older English name, Croft Angry – with a possible German root. Some of the buildings new used as housing, others are in use by Historic Environment Scotland as workshops (called St. Ann’s, despite note being on the St. Ann’s brewery site).

Until recently you could see the ground storey of the Calton Hill Brewery on what is now Calton Road (back then it was the North Back of Canongate) in use as a rental car garage. The brewery went through a variety of ownerships but the remains were demolished ~18 months ago (When this was writen) to be replaced by flats.

Long story short. Don’t let your local paper fool you into believing things about the history of brewing in Edinburgh!

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