byronv2's photostream  

Royal Mile, Edinburgh, just a few yard from the entrance to Edinburgh Castle, at night. This is the Witchery, a posh restaurant also said to be rather haunted... It takes up a fair portion of a series of 16th century building behind this frontage on the Royal Mile itself, near where the palace of Mary De Guise, mother of Mary Queen of Scots once stood on Castlehill. Castlehill has seen a lot of history, even by Edinburgh standards, including a lot of witch trials and executions, hence the haunted reputation... That also tends to make it popular especially at Halloween :-) Never eaten in it, sadly, bit out of my price range, I suspect, besides being a veggie there's only a tiny amount they have I could eat and I'd probably have much more fun eating a very fine Indian spicy veggie dinner for less and spend the money saved on booze :-)

another nocturnal graveyard shot in Saint Cuthberts - quiet, dark, peaceful, but literally just a few steps behind me and up the steps was busy rush hour Lothian Road and two crowded bus stops, behind the tombs here you can see in the background above the lights of Princes Street

okay, amidst all the night shots of grand historic, tasteful landmarks and buildings of Edinburgh, here's a rather less tasteful and literally brand new structure, the just opened Primark on Princes Street. Not terribly attractive addition to a historic street that 60s town planners already made a partial mess of, although it does make for a nice, colourful image at night, doesn't it? View the bigger version and you can get some detail, even make out dummies in the windows, although the people in the street are moving too much while the lens is open to be clear.

using the street light to sit down and have a quick read before moving on - as I had the tripod set up for some night shots of city buildings I spotted them and had to try and take a furtive, candid street shot (I do like unposed street shots!), wasn't sure the people would come out though leaving lens open, fortuantely they didn't move too much while I was taking it

Plaque to Hugh Miller, writer, pioneering Scottish geologist and folklorist, on the side of a wall by the City Chambers, Edinburgh. Sadly the brilliant Miller increasingly struggled to reconcile what he divined of our planet's past through geology with his devout Christian beliefs and he took his own life in 1856. There is a beautiful statue of him by Amelia Paton (who was married to David Octavius Hill, the pioneering Scottish photographer), in the National Museum of Scotland, where many of his fossils and geological specimens are also preserved, you can see a pic of it I took here: www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/6364948101/