Open doors in Scotland
Those who fnd themselves disappointed with a little chocolate and an illustration of a grinning reindeer should check out Edinburgh’s 24 Doors of Advent event – an advent calendar constructed on a more ambitious scale. The idea sees a different historic building embracing the festive spirit by opening its doors to visitors for free each day. Among them are places typically off limits to the public, such as Gilmerton Cove, a network of underground caves variously suspected to be an illicit drinking den or a smugglers’ refuge, and New Register House, which has some four miles of shelves creaking under the weight of births, marriages and deaths. Be sure to take a snap inside Rock House, an 18th-century cottage beneath Calton Hill whose frst owners were forefathers of modern photography.
Rock House was Scotland’s frst photographic studio in the mid 1800s