The claim
Almost beneath the Forth Bridge at the old Queensferry crossing, the Hawes Inn has served ferry travellers since the seventeenth century. Robert Louis Stevenson used it as a setting in his 1886 novel Kidnapped. Boats still leave the pier opposite for Inchcolm island, keeping this waterside inn tied to the river traffic that created it.
What the records show
The 17th century is the listing's date, not the inn's. Historic Environment Scotland lists 2 Newhalls Road, the Hawes Inn, at Category B and dates the original part to the later 17th century, with 19th-century extension westward and a Baronial east wing of 1893 by Sydney Mitchell & Wilson. The date stone reading 'IS BB 1638' was reused from the old house of New Halls, so it dates that house and not this one, and a claim naming a century and no year is sorted from the century's first year. No record of drink sold here at the claimed date has been traced; the house publishes no date of its own. Robert Louis Stevenson set part of Kidnapped (1886) in it.
What to look for inside
- Setting in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped (1886)
- Beside the Forth Bridge and Hawes Pier
Visiting
The Hawes Inn is in South Queensferry, Scotland, at Newhalls Road, South Queensferry. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Queensferry
- camra.org.uk/pubs/hawes-inn-south-queensferry-150303
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/663501
- portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB40354
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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