Writers Museum

Tucked off the Royal Mile in Lady Stair’s Close, the Writers’ Museum occupies Lady Stair’s House - an elegant, turreted 1622 sandstone town house. This composition faces roughly north across the flagged courtyard of Makars Court. The museum celebrates Scottish writers Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a hidden, atmospheric pocket of the Old Town seconds from the High Street.

A defining characteristic of The Old Town is that it features relatively tall buildings in very tight spaces, much as it has done for hundreds of years. Photographically this means that direct light is hard to come by in bright days, and in overcast days it is very easy to lose the highlights in the sky when exposing for the buildings. That shouldn’t put you off taking photographs, it simply means that compromises have to be made with light and settings. A super-wide lens will take in whole building and create a little bit of space. Watch for blown highlights in the sky.