New iPhone app can show you a good time in Capital

Soon, anyone with an iPhone will be able to dispense with a tour guide and let their handset show them around the Capital instead.

A new app for the popular phone, iScotland, flags up facts and statistics as the user walks down the street, visits a building or landmark, climbs a hill or even when they head to a pub for a drink.

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It is designed to act as a virtual tour guide, and is thought to be one of the biggest and most wide-ranging sources of information of its kind in the country.

Throughout Scotland, the device provides information for over 18,000 buildings and places, with over 1,100 of these being in Edinburgh.

Developer Bruce Gittings, 46, and his business partner Rob Dunfey have been collating the extensive list of information for more than 15 years, and they decided that the iPhone offered an opportunity to utilise it.

Mr Gittings, who is also a lecturer in geographical information at the University of Edinburgh, said: "It's an interesting and novel way for tourists to discover the country, and the city, and residents can discover a lot that they didn't know too.

"We thought modern Scotland needed a modern description of its surroundings, but as well as pooling together documents, reference books and information from government agencies I have personally visited thousands of places, including the small islands, and taken thousands of pictures.

"Every year I try to travel around for three weeks or so. The project has become more of a hobby than a business venture. It's a bit of an obsession."

Mr Dunfey said: "As you walk down Princes Street you can use iScotland and it will return information on Scott's Monument. Go for a beer in the Cafe Royal and iScotland informs you that the bistro upstairs was filmed in Chariots of Fire in 1981, or walk along George IV bridge it will give you the history of Greyfriars Bobby. Obviously coverage is excellent in the large cities, but many summers have been spent in the Highlands and islands compiling information, so we've got Scotland covered."

The device is thought to hold a breadth of information equivalent to 27 average-sized paperback novels. If sold as an encyclopedia in the shop it would cost around 40, instead of the 1.79 charge to download it to the iPhone.

As impressive as it is, Samantha Thomson, owner of Edinburgh Tour Guides, said the device could not replace a traditional tourist trip around the city.

She said: "I think if tour guides were replaced by mobile phones that would be a bit of a loss.

"Tour guides can show those who aren't familiar with the area things that would otherwise be hidden and they offer a personal touch.

"If you don't have time for a full tour, or want to go from A to B, I can see their benefit, but otherwise I think a person using a mobile information device would lose interest halfway through their walk. Guides make walks or coach rides a lot more colourful."