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The pub’s story
The Staghead is a Category B-listed former house, now a small hotel and public bar, at the junction of High Street and Gote Lane. Historic Environment Scotland’s secure physical date is a 1712 lintel in an earlier rear section; it also records substantial later alterations, including the projecting hotel frontage and deeper accommodation toward Gote Lane. The operator’s ‘seventeenth-century former coaching inn’ description is therefore presented as venue tradition rather than settled fact. CAMRA’s current record shows a multi-part place: hotel, main bar, snug, rear dining area/dancefloor and seasonal rear garden overlooking the bridges. It also records a May 2023 end to real ale and a July 2026 notice that the kitchen is closed until further notice. This is a long-evolving building with genuine early fabric, but its visitor story should be guided by documented layers rather than ghost tales or coaching-inn folklore.
What to notice
- 01
The 1712 lintel belongs to an earlier rear section, not to the later High Street hotel frontage.
- 02
CAMRA’s July 2026 record says the kitchen is closed until further notice; confirm any food plans directly before travelling.
- 03
CAMRA records a seasonal rear beer garden overlooking the bridges, plus accommodation, live music and a main bar/snug layout.
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 lintel survives in an earlier rear section of the present building.
The High Street hotel frontage and substantial rear accommodation altered the earlier house; no single construction date is given in the listing.
8 High Street and 1 Gote Lane were added to the statutory list at Category B.
CAMRA records the end of real-ale service following the closure of Ferry Brewery.
CAMRA’s current record notes that the kitchen is closed until further notice.
CAMRA and the operator document the current hotel, bar, live-music and seasonal-garden operation.
Sources & confidence
The statutory listing and SCAPE survey securely establish Category B status, a 1712 element and later alteration. The live operator and CAMRA establish independent current operation, bar, music and rooms. The operator's broader early-seventeenth-century coaching-inn description is treated as attributed tradition, and unsupported ghost and stag-origin tales are excluded.
Research reviewed
- 8 High Street and 1 Gote Lane, Stag Head Hotel (LB40375)Historic Environment Scotlandheritage
SupportsThe Category B designation, surviving 1712 fabric, and distinction between earlier structure and later hotel alterations.
- About UsThe Staghead Hotelofficial
SupportsThe operator’s current family-run identity and attributed former-coaching-inn account.
- The Staghead HotelThe Staghead Hotelofficial
SupportsCurrent hotel, bar, drinks, food, bridge-view and live-music identity.
- Staghead Hotel, South QueensferryCAMRAspecialist
SupportsCurrent bar and rooms, real-ale and kitchen notices, live music, garden, facilities and weekly opening hours.
- Coastal Assessment — Firth of ForthSCAPE Trustheritage
SupportsIndependent survey context for the Category B hotel on the waterfront High Street.
