Maproom’s parent company, Thameside Media, is closely associated with illustrated travel guides, having produced dozens of travel guides for different publishers over the years, including Eyewitness Japan, Blue Guide India, Real City Barcelona and Top 10 Algarve.

This is why we were especially delighted and only too pleased to oblige when Duncan J.D. Smith, knowledgeable author of the Only In travel guides, approached Maproom to build custom maps of Edinburgh and her environs for his well-researched new guide, Only In Edinburgh.

This guide is organised with thematic spreads delving into the more unexpected and unusual aspects of Scotland’s capital. So that, rather than a dry description of St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, we leap into the story of Leith-born sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, whose giant foot sculpture is installed in the cathedral forecourt. We trace J.K. Rowling’s coffee hangouts and speculate on the manifestation of the real George Heriot’s Castle, Lauriston, Raeburn and Greyfriars as the houses of Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in the Harry Potter novels. Fans of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus are pointed to resources such as an app, tour guides and the Royal Oak pub at 1 Infirmary Street. A section titled A Poem in Glass and Stone turns out to be a 1999 structure housing the Scottish Poetry Library with its wealth of works in Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots and English. Another section, Where to Find a Million Pounds, piques further interest.

There are over 100 such gems uncovered, each one elegantly penned by Smith, with accompanying high-quality colour photography and plotted with a numbered flag on our map base.

We thoroughly recommend the Only In series.

Only In Edinburgh: A Guide to Unique Locations, Hidden Corners and Unusual Objects, Duncan J.D. Smith (The Urban Explorer, ISBN 978-3-9504218-0-4, £16.95)
onlyinguides.com