Since Andy wrote about Camera Obscura around Europe for the Europe a la Carte blog earlier this year, I’ve thought that I really must visit the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. Well, finally five months later, I visited with our son Gary.

We climbed up to the roof top terrance first to admire the views as we had a few minutes to wait before the next Camera Obscura presentation. There are several free telescopes you can use there.

Gary on the roof top terrace at the Camera Obscura, Edinburgh

During the Camera Obscura presentation you see a revolving panoramic view of Edinburgh. At the end of the show you can have some fun by using pieces of paper to lift up pedestrians and build paper bridges for vehicles to cross over on the projection screen.

I’ve only visited one other camera obscura in Kirriemuir, north of Dundee in the county of Angus, I have to say that the images at the Kirriemuir camera were more magical to me. Perhaps it was mainly that the images in Kirriemuir were predominatly of countryside whereas in Edinburgh they were mainly of rather dark looking buildings.

Although you’d imagine that the main attraction would be camera obscura itself, I’d say that the interactive exhibits were more fun and we spent a lot more time on them. You can see some of the exhibits and hands-on activities in the videos below.

Admission to the Edinburgh Camera Obscura costs £8.50 for adults, £6.75 for seniors and students, £5.75 for kids aged 5 – 15, free for under 5s. Therefore admission for 2 adults and 2 kids aged 5 – 15 would be just over £30. I reckon that you could probably spend around 2 hours there.

In summary I’ve say that the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh is ideal for an indoor family activity morning or afternoon and is priced at around the going rate for paid attractions. However if you visit on a dull day then the Camera Obscura images will be even greyer.

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