James Illing Photography

The Vennel – Edinburgh

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by

James
in ,
A photo of Edinburgh Castle taken in the sun with blue skies, taken from the Vennel
Exif
Aperturef/8
Shutter1/250s
Focal Length28mm
ISO200

The Vennel is a steep set of stairs on the south-east side of Grassmarket. It leads up and along the Flodden and Telfer town walls. Once you start climbing the stairs, start looking back towards Grassmarket to get a fantastic view of the Castle.

Whilst there are quite a few stairs, there are regular flat areas. These are great to set up a tripod on to capture the castle.

The Vennel is a well known photography spot appearing in many location guides. There are often tourists and other photographers.

The Castle

Castle rock has been inhabited since the Iron age, and a castle has been here since the 11th centry. It has a long and colourfull history1. Today it is a tourist attraction run by Historic Environment Scoland. The castle had over 2.2 million visitors in 2019, and includes cafes, restraunts and seceral shops.

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is held each year in August. Here many of the regimental pipes and bands showcase their skill.

Location

GPS55.946396 , -3.1971712
Grid ReferenceNT 25330 73242
What3Words///thin.villa.eggs

Photography

When to shoot

Whilst dawn in summer gives you some fantastic photos, the above photography was taken on a September afternoon. This has the advantage that the castle is fully lit. Earlier in the day only the right-hand part of the castle is fully lit by the sun.

Check the weather before heading out. There is little more frustrating than making the pre-dawn trip to just get dull grey clouds.

Use an app like Photo Ephemeris2 to calculate when the sun will be where you want it to be.

What to Capture on Camera

The photo above is shot with a 28mm lens on a full frame camera, with no cropping on the image. The other photos I have taken of this shot vary from about 28mm upto 50mm focal lengths. I’d recommend a wide angle lens, and a tripod.

Facilities

Food and Drink

Just at the bottom of the stairs is Mary’s Milk Bar3, which is possibly Edinburgh’s most famous Ice-cream shop. It is definitely worth a vist on a hot day. There are public toilets, and plenty of restraunts and bars down in the Grassmarket.

Transport

Grassmarket is well served by busses with the 2, 26, 43, X60A, and X62 4services going through.

Edinburgh Castle Terrace carpark5 (750 spaces) which is near by. There is also limited on street parking in Grassmarket itself.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Castle ↩︎
  2. https://app.photoephemeris.com/start?center=55.946396%2C-3.1971712&ch=0&cw=100&ll=55.946154%2C-3.196968&sh=1.524&sw=100&z=18 ↩︎
  3. https://www.marysmilkbar.com/ ↩︎
  4. https://moovitapp.com/index/en-gb/public_transportation-Grassmarket-Scotland-street_1233265-402 ↩︎
  5. https://www.ncp.co.uk/find-a-car-park/car-parks/edinburgh-castle-terrace/ ↩︎