In its heyday it was hailed as Britain's biggest market, but Edinburgh's Ingliston Market is now sadly little more than a fading memory after rogue traders were caught selling millions of pounds worth of counterfeit goods.
Situated on Glasgow Road in the vast car park of the Ingliston Showground, the infamous market was one of the largest outdoor markets in all of Europe when it opened in July 1973.
Operating each Sunday, the open-air market's hundreds of stalls and car boot traders attracted tens of thousands of bargain hunters from across Edinburgh and the Lothians and beyond.
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Drawn by the rock bottom prices, it was said that up to 400 coach loads of frugal punters would come up from England every weekend just to visit the market, which sold everything from clothes, furniture and toys to domestic appliances and other household goods.
Famous for its huge pink King Kong statue, which doubled as a convenient meeting place and the perfect pick up point for 'lost' children, the iconic market was like a living, breathing eBay where you could pick up pretty much anything your heart desired at a snip.
For a generation growing up in Edinburgh, a trip to Ingliston was seen as a Sunday treat, where you'd be guaranteed to walk away with a brand new He-Man figurine, Barbie doll or pair of trainers that your mum and dad would seldom be able to afford from the high street.
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But, as the new millennium approached, Ingliston, which was run by local firm Spook Erections, soon developed a tag as a 'black' market with the site becoming a target for rogue traders selling counterfeit goods.
Crackdown operations by police and trading standards officers were frighteningly common at Ingliston. In one well-publicised raid in 2000, dozens of police and customs officers seized more than £250,000 worth of illegal VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, PlayStation games and computer software.
And in 2003, a large operation involving more than 100 Lothian and Borders police officers and officials from both the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) seized more than £10 million worth of bootleg items. The following year, another raid was conducted, this time bringing in £5 million worth of DVDs, with dodgy traders fleeing the scene.
Ingliston Sunday Market was branded in the press as the worst market in Scotland for piracy.
In 2004, Ingliston's owner Nigel Maby sadly passed away, and it was clear the market's days were numbered. After 32 years of operation, the Ingliston Sunday Market was brought to an end in September 2005.
It was a sad day for all involved, not least for the traders, the vast majority of whom had conducted their business in a legal manner.
Then City of Edinburgh Council leader Donald Anderson, who had a haberdashery and fabrics stall at Ingliston as a teenager, told The Scotsman newspaper: "It is quite sad to hear that it is closing, but I think that its time has come and gone, it is not what it was. This is the end of an era though."
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