5 Edinburgh party venues for any occasion

Leith Arches has the party venue ambience: exposed brick and stonework, feature windows, a mezzanine, and an absolutely versatile party space. The team here know their business and will transform the space into whatever you need it to be, with an excellent lighting setup, PA system, and fully licensed bar stocking all the usual suspects alongside choice selections from Tennent’s and Drygate breweries.

For parties large and small, there are spaces for you. Choose from a full venue hire which can accommodate 180 guests, the mezzanine with a capacity of 60, Under the Arch Bar with a capacity of 50, and the Secret Garden outdoor space for smaller parties.

Whether you want to get hands-on providing your own catering, DJ/band, and entertainment, or you want to let Leith Arches handle all these fine details for you, there’s a reason this party venue is one of the best in Edinburgh.

Why bring the beer to the party when you can take the party to the brewery and taproom? This party venue is for a certain calibre of drinkers (you know who you are).

At the city centre Innis & Gunn there are 26 taps to choose from including the 500-litre beer tank serving unpasteurised Innis & Gunn beer delivered straight from the brewery. If your guests’ bevvy of choice isn’t beer, there’s an extensive selection of wines, spirits, and cocktails to suit every palate.

The venue has a total capacity of 221 guests, with a minimum spend of £6,000. There’s a back area of the bar and taproom and a lower-floor entrance space. Hire both spaces or the full venue, and whatever you hire there’s a variety of flexible seating available. And there’s bespoke buffet and catering options available to pair with all that beer!

Ghillie Dhu is a stunning Grade B-listed former church sitting in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle and one of the city’s most unique party venues. Ornate arches, feature chandeliers, and a lighting system worthy of a West End theatre.

There are a range of hire options from small catered parties, canapés and drink receptions to large parties and more. The award-winning Auditorium on the first floor of the Ghillie Dhu has a capacity of 300 standing, or 150 in a cabaret layout, making it a truly unique, standout party space.

Historic and elegant with all the conveniences a 21st-century party venue could need, the Ghillie Dhu offers a variety of hire packages, including a three-course meal, drinks on arrival, a DJ, and even a ceilidh band and a piper if you want to go all out.

Regularly featured on the world’s best bars lists, Panda & Sons is the classic speakeasy cocktail bar with a secret entrance behind a bookshelf. If you’re not the blank canvas party

venue type or party-in-a-brewery-taproom, then maybe you’re one for posting mysterious selfies with your face partly obscured by the smoke rising from your cocktail.

Throwing a party in a cocktail bar will never get old. Whether you’re starting the night there or ending with a nightcap, it’s where everybody has one too many and all the photo-taking is necessary to help you recall the night's events.

Panda & Sons has the mood lighting, the evocative turn-of-the-century decor, the requisite panda art on the walls, and the smoking cocktails – well, technically, it’s a result of cocktails designed to freezing techniques but you get the point, it looks dramatic.

The decor and design of Nauticus smacks of the old-timey pub and whisky bar: deep green walls, wooden floors, original crown moulding, chandeliers, and backlit deep wooden bar veritable glowing with spirits of all kinds.

Tucked away in Leith, this Edinburgh party venue is for the type that likes to keep things simple with a good old-fashioned pub. Alongside a plethora of beverages, enjoy dishes that champion Scottish produce, and an ambience that makes you feel like you should be wearing Harris tweed, smoking a cigar, and debating the merits of Lagavulin and Laphroaig.

Hire the entire pub or keep it small and cosy in a semi-private area that feels like a whisky-tasting room and a private library got together and had a party.