Peter Irvine’s Scotland the best
Edinburgh galleries
Have a fun and interesting day out and lap up a little culture with a few top-notch galleries
Ingleby
Surely one of the most beautiful private galleries in the land, the former Glasite Meeting House, a magnificent glass-domed main space and upstairs smaller room, both showing contemporary Scottish and international work to great effect.
Edinburgh Printmakers
Workshop-studio and gallery with exhibitions of work by contemporary printmakers and shop where prints from many of the notable names in Scotland are on sale at reasonable prices. Good courses.
The Scottish Gallery
Guy Peploe’s influential New Town gallery. Excellent exhibitions. Where to go to buy something painted, sculpted or crafted by up-and-comers or established names – from affordable jewellery to Joan Eardleys. Or just look.
Fruitmarket
Behind Waverley Station and opposite City Art Centre. A two-floor, warehousey gallery showing international work, retrospectives, installations; the city’s most contemporary public art space. Excellent bookshop. Always interesting. Seven days 11am-6pm. Café highly recommended.
Dovecot Studios
Fascinating centre for contemporary art and craft, built around a functioning tapestry studio of international repute. In a former swimming baths you can look down from an all-round gallery to watch work in progress. The ground-floor gallery is programmed with high-quality changing exhibitions.
Stills
Bang in the city centre, this is Scotland’s original photography gallery with facilities, courses and year-round exhibitions.
Peter Irvine is the author of the essential travel guide Scotland the Best published by Collins, priced £15.99