The first time I visited the Caley Ale House was the first time I had a drink in Edinburgh: I was sixteen (hello licensing board, don’t bother, it shuts in ten days anyway) and had been at an Edinburgh uni open day. Having been to the token two lectures in order to tell my folks what I’d seen, I met Nick and Paul McKay for a pint. Nick insisted on ordering draught Budweiser for some reason – something which would (thankfully) be unheard of these days. Paul, of course, stuck to his usual pint of Tennents’ Lager. I can’t remember what it was specifically that I liked about the place (perhaps it was the fact that I was being served, perhaps it was the fact that I’d decided to move to Edinburgh, perhaps it was the fact that it was the first pub in which I really felt at home – who cares?) but from then on I loved the place.
Fast forward three months - just shy of a year before I moved down south actually – and myself, Nick and Paul again convened in the Caley Ale House. We had more of an occasion this time, however, as we were going to see, now-defunct band, The Stands play an acoustic set in the basement of HMV on Princes Street. Thankfully, drink tastes had moved on somewhat (for this we should probably thank Inverness’ Bar Pivo) and Pilsner Urquell was the order of the day. I honestly can’t remember if we only had the one pint or if we managed to stretch it to a second, but again it felt like home. The set was pretty good as well, and looking back at the photo, well…it was a long time ago.
It was a good while before the Caley Ale House received another visit – June 2004 in fact, and by this point the bar staff could almost have got away with serving me. Again it was myself, Nick and Paul who were present. We’d been to see Bob Dylan at the SECC the night before, and somehow Paul had ended up incredibly hungover – maybe it was just my youth but I was fine. Anyway the Pilsner Urquell was gone, and had been replaced with Germany’s Furstenburg (the first time I tried the stuff actually – I remember ranting and raving about it at a friend’s 18th when I got home that night).
Of course, after I moved to Edinburgh, visits to the Ale House became more regular. The first was as part of an impromptu pissup towards the end of my freshers week which began in the Caley Sample Rooms around 7 and ended in the Tron just after midnight. The place then became a regular drinking haunt, especially as they used to play The Best of James seemingly every time we were in. There were weeknights spent talking crap, weekend nights spent kidding ourselves we wouldn’t end up in Citrus, afternoons supping on a sly pint or two. It was even the starting place of a session of ridiculous proportions towards the end of my first year which was meant to help Nick get over his recent split from then girlfriend Liz – of course the night ended up with him being sick in the middle of Rose Street after being plied with drinks by an unknown Irish punter who’d been propping up the bar.
The infamous Rose St night, pictured
Second year came and went, still the Ale House served as a regular watering hole, and increasingly we were joined by Nick’s flatmate Ewen Leask. Into my third year of uni and visits would become almost ritual whenever Ewen returned to town – one night last summer saw us polish off twelve pints of Best each, and yet Nick somehow still made it into work the next day. Me? I’d just finished my exams, I was happy to stay in bed mate…
Shortly after that (we're talking weeks not hours, don't worry), we decided that we’d go on a bit of a pubcrawl but rather than drinking in regular haunts we’d see if we could find a few new boozers – and thus the Great Edinburgh Pub Challenge was dreamt up. Where was our first pint that day? - where else could it have been?
Given the nature of the pub challenge, visits to the pub have been in stupid places, and we’ve taken in some really awful boozers – much of the time we’d have been better off in the Caley Ale House, which has probably suffered from only a slight drop in custom over the last 6 months. Still, we’ll be there for the funeral, and we hope you will be too (black tie recommended – no white socks please Mr Johns).
Until the next time…or until then.
NB The Caledonian Ale House closes its doors for the last time on 15 March 2008. All are welcome to join The Management and friends in paying their last respects to a legendary watering hole.
