It used to have a really ugly wooden hoarding hiding all this beauty, but they got a world heritage grant and down came the hoarding to reveal most of the original frontage in tact or at least salvageable. Originally it was the purpose built (1899) McIntyre’s Drapery Stores…McIntyre & Co were ‘Warehousemen and Costumiers of ladies’ dress’…how marvellous…wish they still were.

Turns out that the shop front itself is at least 50 years older than the rest of the building and was actually part of the original Georgian tenement (flats with shops below) which was on the site before the new shop was built in 1899. Exciting stuff and makes you wonder what else is out there hiding behind chipboard hoardings…If you want to know more, there is an article about it all in the Edinburgh World Heritage site…Oh and lest we forget how it used to look, here is a photo i found on the site scotsman.com:

…and on the other scale of the spectrum, this rather fabulous building (Victorian am thinking?), an old hotel by Queensferry rd has been saved from destruction whilst all around it is raised to the ground…

folk art towards Cramond, i guess it’s a form of vandalism but i kind of like it:

…spotted this creature swimming in the murky waters of the Firth of Forth (well my eagle eyed pal spotted it first, to be accurate), never seen one in this area  before. It was small, dark and on it’s own…wondered if it was a harbour porpoise??

From the bridge its quite a distance looking down, but you could tell the creature was small, and also much darker (almost black) than it appears in my photos…dolphin or porpoise…does anyone know?

“Harbour porpoises are the smallest cetaceans found in Scottish waters. They are also the most abundant cetacean in inshore waters, being found all around our coastline. They tend to be alone or in small groups, although they may form larger groups in areas where there is an abundant food source.”

I filmed this from the Forth Road Bridge, the noise and the shakiness is comes from the vibrations from the relentless traffic thundering past:

…also spotted in same location, the seldom seen and extremely timid female smurf…

“the next stop(motion) is north Queensferry” (16 seconds)

…I know i have banged on about this before but it’s sooooooo beautiful, i think the Forth Rail Bridge is the most wondrous and romantic of structures…anyway, you take the train to North Queensferry, walk up the hill a wee bit, walk down some stairs, and walk across the Forth Road Bridge and you get to look at it all over again!

waiting for the journeymen

If you want to you can read a “short” history on the interestingly titled “the masonic trowel“…it’s not so short though, and it’s quite hard to get through, i warn you…