Guide stalwarts received ‘a most genial welcome from Chris the barman’ on arrival at Graham and Rachel Bucknall’s pub-with-rooms beside a bridge over the Union Canal. Addressed as ‘you guys’, they were shown to a seriously snug but ‘warm, clean room with a shower, luxury Scottish toiletries’. Baird is the largest room, with a king-size double bed, a slipper bath with hand-held shower. Bonnington has a mahogany four-poster and antique chandelier. All four have a canal view. The Bucknalls have brought the same restrained taste to the interiors as to sister hotel The Ship Inn, Elie (see entry). Fires burn in a bar popular with locals. Since last year chef Ben Watson has become general manager, and sous-chef Ross Traill is now head chef. He uses local produce, home-grown vegetables and home-reared pork in a wide-ranging menu of pub classics (fish and chips, pie of the day, sausage and mash, Mull Cheddar macaroni) and more elaborate dishes (roast rump, rack and slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, spring greens, potato gratin, jus). Breakfast brings rare breed sausages, new-laid hen and 
duck eggs from Ratho Hall, fuel for a seven-mile walk down the towpath to Edinburgh. (Jock and Jane Macdonald)