The reason I chose to go to Scotland was because I didn’t want to travel too far whilst back in Britain and also to hunt down some of the filming locations for ‘Trainspotting‘ (1996) which is one of my favourite movies. Although its ‘set‘ in Edinburgh most of the filming actually took place in the grimier Glasgow area but as that part of my trip never happened due to the strong winds circulating that part of Britain I was left with only the capital city itself which does include a couple of scenes during the films opening moments whilst ‘Lust for life‘ by Iggy Pop provides the soundtrack.

We first see Renton, Sick-boy and Spud running away from John Menzies on Princes Street (below) having just robbed it. That particular newsagents is no longer there but the Boots chemist store still is, albeit under construction when I was there.

Renton (Ewan McGregor) then leaps down these steps (below).

They are located right next to the Black Bull tavern (below) at 43 Leith Street.

He runs on to Leith street where a car pulls out of St. Ninian’s Row and nearly hits him.

His reaction is to just look at the driver and laugh!

He then runs off and joins his mates as they run under the bridge below.

It’s not just Glasgow and Edinburgh which provided the backdrop as London also appears towards the end of the film for a couple of shots (as well as a montage of classical London images) as featured in my London ‘Trainspotting‘ feature at the start of last year.