The claim
This Currie Street corner hotel holds South Australia's oldest licence, issued in May 1837 just months after Adelaide was founded. The present two-storey building went up in 1878-79 and gained its balcony in 1926. Construction next door forced a five-year closure from 2018, but it reopened in late 2023 with live music, pub classics and no pokies.
What the records show
The hotel makes the claim itself, in the line across its website: good company since 1837. The City of Adelaide heritage sheet supports it and sharpens it, recording South Australia's first publican's licence issued for the site on 31 May 1837, for Guthrie's Hotel, renamed the Edinburgh Castle Inn in 1839. The current building is an 1878-79 rebuild. The pub closed in September 2018 and reopened in December 2023, so trading was not continuous.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1837 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1878 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 1837 | First record of a drinking house here | City of Adelaide heritage sheet, on the licence of 31 May 1837 |
What to look for inside
- First publican's licence issued in South Australia (31 May 1837)
- Closed 2018-2023
- Pokies-free
Visiting
Edinburgh Castle Hotel is in Adelaide, Australia, at 233 Currie Street, Adelaide SA 5000. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- d31atr86jnqrq2.cloudfront.net/heritage-places/heritage-place-information-sheet-233-239-currie-street.pdf
- theshout.com.au/australian-hotelier/south-australias-oldest-pub-reportedly-closes/
- glamadelaide.com.au/first-look-adelaides-iconic-edinburgh-castle-hotel-reopens-with-refreshed-historic-flair/
- timegents.com/2024/01/20/early-inns-and-taverns-of-adelaide-and-south-australia/
- www.edcastlehotel.com.au/
- www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/rubyhoo-whos-ruby-tour/197697
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
