Edinburgh Castle Blue Hour

This classic view up to Edinburgh Castle is taken late on a summer’s evening during golden hour. Photographing from the iron fence line along Princes Street provides a clear view up to the castle as the road is elevated from the Princes Street Gardens below. The location is easy to access being on the city’s tram route as well as main bus routes through the centre. While Princes Street is consistently busy, this raised viewpoint is not obscured by foot traffic or vehicles, and so the location works at any time of the day without access restrictions.

This shot has to be taken more or less at the height of summer to ensure the façade of the main building you can see to the right (Military Hospital building) and as much of the volcanic rock face (Castle Rock) is illuminated by the setting sun. The north facing side of this building only gets direct setting sunlight during the summer months. This location works throughout the day into blue hour also. Occasionally Castle Rock will be spotlit in various colours for special events, although generally only the castle is floodlit each evening, meaning the foreground of the image taken at night will be very dark.