Kirriemuir Camera Obscura & Cafe Obscura

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Kirriemuir Regeneration Group

Kirriemuir has one of Scotland’s three working Camera Obscuras; in 1930 Peter Pan creator J M Barrie gifted the Camera along with the cricket Pavilion in which it is housed to his home town. The Camera provides spectacular views of the surrounding Angus Glens and countryside. A camera obscura is a device that uses lenses and mirrors to project an image that enters through a hole at roof level downwards onto a circular screen housed in a darkened room in the roof space of the building. The device can be rotated, so the view projected onto the screen can take in a complete 360 degree panorama. The Hill of Kirriemuir offers magnificent views north to the Angus Glens and the southern edge of the Cairngorms, west towards the Trossachs and Ochils and south to the Sidlaws as well as looking over the rest of the hill and the NeverlandPlaypark. This is a fitting location for what, at the time it was opened, would have been considered a great novelty. The novelty,like Peter Pan,never dies. Even in these days of amazing technology its simple mechanism fascinates and delights. Until early 2015 the Camera was operated by the National Trust for Scotland when changes within that organisation threatened its closure. Kirriemuir Regeneration Group, a community group, was formed in March 2015, as local people decided that the town did not want to lose this well-loved, and very rare, attraction – one of only three working Camera Obscuras in Scotland.

The Camera Obscura and Cafe Obscura are managed and staffed solely by volunteers and is open from April until October. There is no admission charge but donations towards upkeep are appreciated.