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The pub’s story
The Ferry Tap occupies the ground floor of the Category B-listed former Forth Bridge Hotel on South Queensferry’s High Street. Historic Environment Scotland records a front gablet dated 1674 and a panel dated 1683, but also identifies a substantial 1890s Scots Baronial rebuilding. Those early stones are genuine building evidence, not proof of uninterrupted pub trading since the seventeenth century. Inside, CAMRA describes a compact one-room pub with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and older brewery material. The current operator combines cask beer, a large malt-whisky range, live music and a whisky society, giving the old building an active local use. The right way to read the place is in layers: date stones, Victorian rebuilding, listed-hotel fabric and a working twenty-first-century pub. It does not need an unverified ‘oldest pub’ claim to be historically interesting.
What to notice
- 01
Compare the 1674 gablet and 1683 panel with the larger 1890s Scots Baronial composition; they belong to different building phases.
- 02
The barrel-vaulted ceiling and older brewery material are part of the documented compact one-room interior.
- 03
The cask pumps, malt-whisky range, live music and whisky society are current pub life, not evidence of seventeenth-century continuity.
The time rail
The building, the pub and its interior may date from different periods. The timeline keeps documented dates separate from tradition.
A dated gablet survives in the front composition; it is building evidence, not a pub-opening date.
A second dated panel survives in the building’s front composition.
Historic Environment Scotland records substantial rebuilding in a Scots Baronial style.
The former Forth Bridge Hotel was added to the statutory list at Category B.
The operator and CAMRA document a current cask, whisky and live-music pub operation.
Sources & confidence
Historic Environment Scotland and Trove supply the statutory identity, date stones and decisive 1890s rebuilding evidence. The live operator and CAMRA establish current trading, drinks and music. The profile deliberately separates old fabric from pub continuity, avoiding the unsupported claim that the present pub has traded since 1683.
Research reviewed
- Forth Bridge Hotel, 36 High Street (LB40385)Historic Environment Scotlandheritage
SupportsCategory B designation, the 1674 and 1683 date stones, and the major 1890s rebuilding.
- South Queensferry, 36 High Street, Forth Bridge HotelTrove Scotland / Historic Environment Scotlandarchive
SupportsNational Record of the Historic Environment place identity and former hotel/public-house context.
- Ferry Tap, South QueensferryCAMRAspecialist
SupportsThe current one-room plan, barrel-vaulted ceiling, cask range and surviving brewery material.
- The Ferry TapThe Ferry Tapofficial
SupportsCurrent venue identity, cask and whisky offer, events and public-bar operation.
- ContactThe Ferry Tapofficial
SupportsCurrent High Street address, contact details and published weekly opening hours.
