The Volunteer Arms, known locally as Staggs, has stayed in the same family's hands on Musselburgh's North High Street since 1858, when Haddington-born brewer James Montgomery took on the building. Nigel Finlay now runs the bar with his daughters Katie McKenzie and Hayley Finlay, keeping the Victorian interior largely as it was, down to the wood panelling and mirrors salvaged from breweries long since closed. The listed building still has its original snug, a small side room separate from the main bar, along with a rear lounge added after the war. Eight handpumps serve a rotating line-up of cask ales, poured beneath a gantry topped with aged spirit casks. There is no music system and no fruit machine; dominoes and cribbage boards sit on the bar instead. CAMRA named it national Pub of the Year in 1998 and regional Pub of the Year again in 2025.
Surveyed