Look up slightly and squint your eyes, ignore the traffic noise and concentrate on the drab grey stone monochromatic buildings each with multiple chimneys, imagine the coal smoke wafting from every house, let the cold mist roll over you and half obscure this image you have created, then you get a feel for the Edinburgh of old.

I wouldn’t want to have lived here then and I am pretty certain I wouldn’t want to live here now. The weather is dreadful…. Full Stop! Places like this spawned songs like “We gotta get out of this place” written by Mann and Web and recorded by The Animals in the mid 60’s.

“In this dirty old part of the city
Where the sun refused to shine”

The song was actually referring to Newcastle on Tyne but the lyrics retain applicability.

To harsh? Perhaps. Edinburgh is a very picturesque city the architecture is great, the coal smoke gone, the people are friendly (with the exception of those suffering from tourist overload) and the weather, well I guess for a few days mid summer it’s probably liveable, and there’s always the attraction of a baked potato stuffed with haggis for a walk around snack…. Yum.

Street-scapes.

Then

Now

Below, a couple of characters from the Fringe.

On the way to Arrochar we called in at Luss, a cute little model village that has been used extensively for British television.

The Kirk.

Previous town residents.

View from the Dock on the Loch.

Evolution at work.