A Victorian optical show that still works, on top of five floors of mirrors and illusions aimed squarely at children.
The oldest purpose-built visitor attraction in Edinburgh, running since 1853, and it is two quite different things stacked on top of each other.
The camera obscura
At the top of the tower, in a darkened room, a mirror and lens on the roof project a live image of the city onto a white concave table. An operator turns the mirror to sweep across the Old Town, the castle and Princes Street, narrating as they go, and picks people out of the streets below with a piece of white card held into the beam.
It is a Victorian optical device that has been doing the same thing for over 170 years and it is genuinely charming. Shows last about twenty minutes, run frequently, and depend on daylight — on a very dark winter afternoon the image is weak, and the staff will tell you so.
The tower was originally built as an observatory by Maria Short in the 1830s, and the business has been in continuous operation since.
The World of Illusions
Five floors below it are a modern attraction: a mirror maze, a vortex tunnel, holograms, a plasma globe room, forced-perspective rooms, a shrinking room and a great deal of the sort of thing that is enormous fun if you are eight and moderately diverting if you are not.
This is where most of the ticket price goes, and it is worth being clear about, because visitors who come expecting a historical curiosity are sometimes surprised to find themselves in a mirror maze.
With children, it is one of the best-value afternoons in Edinburgh. Without them, it is a twenty-minute optical show attached to a large arcade.
The rooftop terrace
Free with the ticket and often overlooked. It gives a 360-degree view over the Old Town roofs, the castle immediately above, and down to the Forth, with telescopes provided. On a clear day it is one of the better viewpoints on the Royal Mile.
Practicalities
Ticketed and not cheap, with online booking cheaper than the door. Allow ninety minutes to two hours to do all five floors and a show.
It is busy at weekends and in August, and there is a lift, though some of the illusion attractions involve stairs and confined spaces.
More Museums
National Museum of Scotland
Dolly the sheep, the Lewis chessmen and a Victorian glass hall, all free, with a roof terrace almost nobody finds.
Scottish National Gallery
Titian, Vermeer, Velázquez and the skating minister, free, in two Playfair temples on a bank of earth dug out of the New Town.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
A red sandstone cathedral to Scottish faces, with a processional frieze of national history round the entrance hall.