Open from noon today
A long bar at the front, a quieter lounge at the back with stained glass windows, a good shelf of malts and a small terrace outside. We are a minute from Waverley, so plenty of people stop in on their way to the train, and plenty more have been coming in for years.
The room
From the close it is just a door and a couple of frosted windows, and people walk past it every day without knowing it is there. Inside there is more room than you would think. The bar is straight in front of you when you come in, with a few tables round the television on one side and standing room on the other.
Through the back is the lounge, the quieter end of the pub, with a fireplace, a long settee under the windows and four stained glass panels with thistles and Saltires in them that light up when the afternoon sun gets down the close. The walls are a deep blue and covered in old photographs and paintings of the city.
It has stayed a locals’ pub in a part of town that is mostly for visitors. Decent beer at a fair price, staff who know their whisky, and a room where people still talk to each other.
Dogs are welcome, young adults of 14 and over until 5pm with an adult, and there is no need to book. Just come in.
Behind the bar
On the taps there is Tennent’s, Guinness, Belhaven Best and Black, Madrí, Pravha, Stella, Neck Oil and Innis and Gunn, with Aspall for cider and a chalkboard of alcohol free bottles.
Behind the bar is the whisky. There is a good spread of malts, from Talisker and Highland Park through to Ardbeg and Bunnahabhain, a malt of the month on the optic, and a row of rums down the far end.
The name
George Heriot was born in Edinburgh in June 1563, the eldest of the ten children of a goldsmith of the same name, and was brought up to his father’s trade. In 1586, with fifteen hundred merks from his father, he set up on his own account in a small booth beside St Giles, roughly where the entrance to the Signet Library now stands, and by 1593 he had risen to be deacon of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths.
In 1597 he was appointed goldsmith to Anne of Denmark, the queen consort, and in 1601 jeweller to James VI himself. The appointments made his fortune, for the royal couple’s appetite for jewels ran far ahead of their means, and Heriot was as much their banker as their jeweller, advancing large sums against the pieces he made and holding the queen’s jewels as security. It was at court that he acquired the nickname Jingling Geordie, from the coins he was said to carry about him.
His first marriage, to Christian Marjoribanks, the daughter of an Edinburgh merchant, was made in 1586, and it is in these years that he is said to have lived on Fleshmarket Close. The marriage produced two sons, both of whom died in childhood, and Christian herself died a few years later. When James succeeded to the English throne in 1603 Heriot followed the court south to London, where he kept a house on the Strand, though he returned to Edinburgh in 1609 to marry Alison Primrose, who died only three years afterwards.
Heriot died in London in February 1624, at the age of sixty, having outlived both his wives and all of his children. Under his will, after legacies to his relations, the residue of his estate, a little over twenty-three thousand pounds sterling and an enormous sum for the time, was left to the town council and ministers of Edinburgh to found a hospital for the maintenance and education of the “puir, faitherless bairns” of the burgesses of the town, on the model of Christ’s Hospital in London, which he had come to know during his years in the south.
Building began in 1628 on open ground beside Greyfriars Kirk, to a design usually credited to William Wallace, the King’s master mason, and went on for thirty years. The work was interrupted by the wars of the 1640s, and when Cromwell’s army occupied Edinburgh in 1650 his troops used the unfinished building as an infirmary and stabled their horses in the chapel. The first thirty boys were admitted in 1659.
The hospital took boarders for two centuries, became a fee paying day school in 1885, and continues today as George Heriot’s School, still on the same ground. Heriot’s statue stands over the quadrangle with a Latin inscription that reads, in translation, “this statue shows my body, this building shows my soul.”
The close is far older than the pub’s name and takes its own from the flesh market, the town’s meat market, which stood at its foot. Henry Dundas lived here before the New Town was built, and when Waverley Station opened below it in the 1840s the close became the quickest way up from the trains to the Royal Mile.
For most of the twentieth century The Scotsman and the Evening News were printed a few yards away on North Bridge, and the Jinglin’ Geordie was the newspapers’ pub, where printers and reporters drank between editions. The columnist Ian Bell remained a regular until the papers moved to Holyrood in 1999.
The pub has gathered a history of its own in the meantime. George Best drank here during his short spell with Hibernian in 1979 and 1980, and the framed newspaper pages recording his visits are still on the wall of the lounge. In 2004 Ian Rankin took the name of the close for the fifteenth of his Rebus novels. The spelling of the pub’s own name follows Walter Scott, who put Heriot into The Fortunes of Nigel in 1822 and gave him the nickname as it has been spelt ever since.
What’s on
Sky Sports and TNT Sports on the screens in the front room. Football and rugby, quiet on a weeknight and busy when Scotland are playing.
Sky SportsTNT Sports
A small paved yard with a gazebo for the rain, a mural on the back wall and a bit of sun in the afternoon. It is where the smokers go too.
Dogs are welcome any time. Young adults of 14 and over are welcome until 5pm with an adult.
We do not take them. Just come in. If you are a big group, give us a ring first and we will do our best.
The terrace
A small yard behind the pub with a gazebo for the rain, a mural on the back wall and a bit of sun in the afternoon. It is where the smokers go too.
Friends of the Jinglin’ Geordie
The pub has a Facebook group where the regulars put up their own photographs, old and new, and keep each other posted on what is happening. A few of those are here, along with pictures of the close that people have shared online over the years.
Reviews
Edinburgh Pub Reviews, Imran Rahman-Jones, February 2025
“The bar staff are good, the regulars are chatty with visitors, and it feels like one of the few genuine local pubs left in the Old Town, not trying to pull in the tourist crowds.”
The Travelling Inspector, TripAdvisor, April 2026
“Accidentally walked in for a drink and found this place. Exactly what we wanted with a small friendly Scottish pub. Bartender was knowledgeable about his extensive selection of scotch and gave a good pour.”
Eric Scott, Google, 2026
“Jonathan the bartender was the best part of this pub! The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, no shortage on whisky options. Great time chatting with the locals, too!”
Lynda S, TripAdvisor, October 2026
“I've been visiting Jinglin' Geordie's since 1988. A superb pub full of character. Great place for a pre-match pint if you're going to watch Hearts. Never fail to visit when I'm in Edinburgh.”
Tamesider_12, TripAdvisor, December 2025
“The Jinglin' Geordie is that rare creature, a pub slap bang in the heart of historic Edinburgh that is admirably free from tourists.”
Janie M., Yelp, Glasgow
“I really liked the outdoor seating area and staff offered to put heaters on for us. It’s sheltered, has little lights and is nestled in amongst the old buildings. To be sitting outside with a wine in Scotland in October was very therapeutic.”
862Carolina, TripAdvisor, October 2024
If you have been in and enjoyed it, a few words on Google or TripAdvisor go a long way for a small pub like ours.
Reviews are quoted as they were written and were last checked 7 October 2026. We are also listed on CAMRA WhatPub, Edinburgh Pub Reviews, EdinburghGuide, Pubs Galore, Yelp, Wylie Travel Dog and Edinburgh Expert.
Find us
Come out of Waverley onto Market Street. Straight across the road there is a stone arch with steps going up. That is Fleshmarket Close, and we are on the right about halfway up.
From the Royal Mile, walk down Cockburn Street and the close is on your right, across from the steps to the City Art Centre.
Hours
Monday to Tuesdaynoon to 10pm
Wednesday11am to midnight
Thursday11am to 11pm
Friday to Saturday11am to midnight
Sunday11am to 10pm
Hours over the festive season may change. Please contact us for information.
Get in touch
0131 225 2803
info@jinglingeordie.co.uk
Facebook page · Facebook group
We do not take bookings. Just come in.
