Camera Obscura And World Of Illusions

A suitably gothic tourist attraction to mirror the feel of Edinburgh’s Old Town, the Camera Obscura attraction houses a visual live ‘tour’ of the city, using the famous camera obscura optical illusion to allow visitors to view a panorama of the surrounding area. Opened in an old townhouse in the 1850s as Short’s Observatory, it was taken over by the famed Edinburgh town planner Patrick Geddes in 1892, who used the camera obscura as an attraction that enabled residents to look more closely at the environment around them.

Now the Camera Obscura title is a banner for an attraction that incorporates not only the device itself, but also a range of interactive optical tricks, including the World of Illusions, the Light Fantastic collection of holograms, a light corridor and a display of photographs of Edinburgh stretching back to the earliest days of photography. The view of the city from the turret atop the building is also worth taking in.