Filming locations in Edinburgh

Visiting Edinburgh: a set-jetting guide. Scotland's capital is a city of crags, closes and a hilltop skyline, and it gave Danny Boyle's Trainspotting its breathless heartbeat. The 1996 cult drama opens at a dead sprint, Renton tearing along the pavement to a thumping soundtrack, and the streets he runs are real, public and free to walk yourself, right in the centre of town.

That famous opening chase begins on Princes Street, the city's grand shopping thoroughfare, with the castle and its gardens lined up along one side. It is a busy, ordinary street today, crossed by trams and buses, but walk its length and the views up to the old town are exactly the ones the film hurtles past, the same gothic skyline rising above the shopfronts.

For the wider sense of the characters' Edinburgh, climb Calton Hill, the monument-topped rise that gives the film its sweeping views over the city. It is a short, free walk up steps from Waterloo Place to a cluster of grand follies, including the unfinished National Monument, and one of the best panoramas in Scotland. The vista takes in the castle, the volcanic hump of Arthur's Seat and the sea beyond, and it is a local favourite for sunset.

The beauty of an Edinburgh set-jetting day is that everything is close together and walkable, with the two filming spots barely ten minutes apart on foot. Base yourself in the centre, between the old and new towns, and you can fold the locations into a wider wander past the castle and down the closes. Time Calton Hill for early evening, when the low light gilds the monuments and the city lays itself out below.