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Real Edinburgh PRINTS - CANVAS - FRAMED PRINTS from www.realedinburgh.co.uk My name is Grant Ritchie and I’m a photographer from Edinburgh. Can I buy your prints Grant? A. Q.

This page started life as a sister page to my Real Edinburgh blog, a street photography project I started in late 2011 around the city from the schemes to the centre. As that ran it’s course this page as slightly morphed into what you see here now, it’s gone from the gritty mean streets to showcasing Edinburgh and the Lothians as best I can in images. I’m also interested in Astro-photography so I like to chuck a few of these in on the way with the link to Edinburgh being that they are all taken in Edinburgh! I like to try and throw in the odd photography tip here and there any my aim is to get Edinburgh out photographing the city in all it’s glory. A few frequently asked questions...

Q. Yes, you most certainly can, email me at [email protected] and let me know what you want, more than happy to discuss bespoke requests and I won’t rip you off either. You can buy some prints directly from my website at http://www.realedinburgh.co.uk

Q. Can I use your pic as my Facebook cover photo? Hmmmmm... I’d rather you didn’t. BUT, if you really must and you’re going to do it anyway at least give me a link back to this page? Can I share your pic on my timeline. Of course you can, it’s one of the core functions of Facebook, just please use the Facebook share function as it keeps the image associated with this page. Can I download your pic and post on my timeline? No, that’s is expressly against Facebook T&C’s. It also removes the association with this page and people never get to know the source of the image. I own the copyright of every image I post and I do follow up on copyright infringements. Please use the share function, it’s easier and fairer. Can I use your pic as my desktop wallpaper? I can’t see why you’d want to really? The size on Facebook is way too small for most resolutions these days and the quality is pretty mince but as long as you promise not to upload it anywhere online or do anything else with it then I guess that’s ok with me. Are you on Flickr? Yes, www.flickr.com/photos/grant_r

Q. Are you on Twitter? Yes,

Its not huge but it is Saturn. Not the right setup for planetary imaging but Saturn is Saturn, from an Edinburgh back ga...
18/10/2026

Its not huge but it is Saturn. Not the right setup for planetary imaging but Saturn is Saturn, from an Edinburgh back garden.

In my prolific photography years I always had an eye on sunset, these days I hardly notice it. Wonder how many amazing o...
16/10/2026

In my prolific photography years I always had an eye on sunset, these days I hardly notice it. Wonder how many amazing ones I've missed over the last few years? The last sunset I really took notice of was in Rhodes in April this year. Incredible, over the sea with the south coast of Turkey in the background but with one my phone with me and a particualarly good indian in front of me I didn't so much as attempt to photoraph it.

What I need is a decent drone and a change in the law so I can fly it 10 miles in any direction from the back door. That would be amazing. Sadly unlikely to ever happen.

I need a new keyboard as well, I make so many mistakes with this sort of compact one so thats what I'm off to do now. Oh the rock and roll lifestyle of a middle aged photographer!

Wasn't sure if this was Bank House or Old College at first, both are in the same vacinity if viewed from Arthur's Seat b...
13/10/2026

Wasn't sure if this was Bank House or Old College at first, both are in the same vacinity if viewed from Arthur's Seat but pretty sure the statue is Goldenballs on top of Old College.

White Horse Close, found at the bottom of the Canongate. Little known fact, it was named after gravel voiced love guru, ...
12/10/2026

White Horse Close, found at the bottom of the Canongate. Little known fact, it was named after gravel voiced love guru, Barry White who used to live up that little stair in the middle.

Barry was a keen horseman and kept his trusty steed, a mighty pure white Clydesdale in a velvet lined stable just out of shot to the left. Every morning, as sun broke Barry would ride like the wind over Arthur's Seat, the horse’s hooves clapped like thunder as it carried the white suited love doctor around the park.

Barry loved that horse, it was his first horse, his last horse, it was everything to him. Sadly, he moved away in the 70's as he had simply run out of women to seduce in Edinburgh (and the neighbours were complaining about the horse s**t), the close though keeps the memory of big Barry and his equine companion alive.

Was it last night? No, but does it matter? Unlinke the number of Ai fakes doing the rounds of aurora of Edinburgh yester...
11/10/2026

Was it last night? No, but does it matter? Unlinke the number of Ai fakes doing the rounds of aurora of Edinburgh yesterday this actually happened and is far more representative of what a lower latitude aurora looks like. With some of the slop I've seen posted today you'd have to have been in the Arctic circle to have got those views and still people fall over themselves to believe it.

Yet I get called all manner of names for posting silly totally unbelievable anacdotes of Edinburgh places by people who's humour bypass was a complete success!

Barrie's Close, which of course was famously named after the surviving Bee Gee, Barry Gibb. It's well known Barry marrie...
10/10/2026

Barrie's Close, which of course was famously named after the surviving Bee Gee, Barry Gibb. It's well known Barry married a Musselburgh lass but what's less well known is that this close was the inspiration for disco classic "Stayin' Alive".
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Barry used to cut down the close after a night on the sauce while in Edinburgh and one night found himself at the mercy of a group of anti-social Edinburgh youths, known as "wee fannies" and not for the first time either.
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They set about the lone Bee Gee and Barry said later, "I knew if I went down, I was a goner and I just had to stay alive". Barry fought his way out that close, wee fannies strewn over the ground, one turned to him and said, "You win again Barry".
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That night he wrote Stayin Alive on the night bus home. True story.

Milnes Court. Named of course after the writer A.A. Milne who once stood in a poo while walking through the close as he ...
09/10/2026

Milnes Court. Named of course after the writer A.A. Milne who once stood in a poo while walking through the close as he emerged from the other end trying to scrape it off on a railing, he proclaimed... "the poo winnie come off!" and thus a literary legend was born...

The Cowgate was a thriving industrial area of 17th century Edinburgh and it served a very particular need to the residen...
08/10/2026

The Cowgate was a thriving industrial area of 17th century Edinburgh and it served a very particular need to the residents of the city at this time. Around this time, it became popular for the middle class to own a cow which served all their milk needs and eventually, a nice steak dinner for the owners.
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However, bovine escape was a particular problem. Cows couldn't be hemmed in by the flimsy gates the residents had, they needed something with a bit more heft behind it, and that solution was the Coo Gate.

The Coo Gate was an immediate success, slippery bovines were safely hemmed in and the area where the gates were made was named in honour of the birthplace of the invention, although it's been gentrified now to the Cowgate. Coo gates weren't the only gate made in Edinburgh, but we'll save the bloody story of the Canon Gate for another day.
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“Robert Burns penned a couple of poems in honour of the cow escapes. Both were very early works.
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Whaurs ma coo,
It wis here just the noo?
A wis in the loo
When I heard a big moo
If ye see it too
Tell it to shoo
Am aff tae the zoo
To get a gnu.
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and
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In yonder close I seen a coo
it must huv moved cos it's no there noo.

The "funsponges" have been out in force the last few nights with the satire posts...
08/10/2026

The "funsponges" have been out in force the last few nights with the satire posts...

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