TENS of thousands of campaigners from both the Yes and No independence camps took to the streets over the weekend as political debate gripped the nation.

Activists delivered their message from Glasgow to Aberdeen and Inverness to Dundee, while smaller towns and villages got an unaccustomed taste of political fervour.

The Yes side claimed to have more than 35,000 activists out at about 500 events. Better Together claims to have matched them.

The Stockbridge area of ­Edinburgh is hotly contested, affluent but with a slightly ­independent streak. The window posters are a score draw.

There was a Better Together stall at the regular Sunday ­farmers' market: the area loves its artisan produce and has supporters in both camps.

Miles Briggs, a Tory candidate, is delighted, pointing to No posters in local windows since they began giving them away earlier.

Most who engage with the stalls are already sure how they will vote. Michael O'Connell, 54, is picking up badges and is already a No supporter.

"I don't think it's as close as they say it is," he says, citing the cost of the Scottish Parliament building and the trams project as proof Scotland cannot run its own affairs. His wife Louise, 54 agrees. "We've done too much together to change now," she said.

Kirsty MacLeod, 31, is from Stockbridge but attended university in Newcastle and then worked in London for a decade.

She admits the "Wee Blue Book" - from Wings Over ­Scotland website campaigner Stuart Campbell - almost swayed her with its economic arguments, but she returned to No as an emotional response. "I'd be gutted if it's a Yes. I would cry," she said.

Handing out leaflets at the market are Noah and Georgina, both 24. They won't give their surnames because Noah is a civil servant. Partners since university, with scant Scottish connections, they travelled up on Saturday to help deliver leaflets.

Georgina said they had been talking about the issue for months, while Noah said: "It just felt better to come up and help than sit on our arses complaining."

In the New Town there are surprising breaks in the capital's usual reticence, for example the poster on a top-floor flat proclaiming: "Let's spit out the dummies," and portraying David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.

The Yes stall at the top of Leith Walk was going like a fair, and not just with supporters. A couple of Better Together campaigners had stopped for a street debate.

But that's not the norm. Most of those who don't agree choose to pass by. Yes supporters Seonaid McDonald and Virginia Radcliffe are taking a coffee break after singing Coming Round the Mountain mixing as many "ayes" in it as possible.

The talk is of scare stories from Downing Street and big business being defied by people who will not be bullied.

Moni Tagore, 33, of Scots Asians for Independence, says he did not begin to learn arguments about economics, wages and wider issues until he got involved in the Yes campaign. Frank Wright, 59, a government scientist born in Govan, got interested because of the "lack of British fairness" in recent scare stories and the willingness of the media to disseminate these.

Back in Stockbridge, hundreds of the No tribe gather on the Grange Cricket Club field. The ostensible reason is an aerial photograph of them forming the word NO. The real motive is to feel comfort in their own company, safe from the barbarians at the gate. Many sport Union Flag umbrella hats. One woman teams such headgear with a matching dress and rucksack.

The men sport rugby tops and sometimes the full Murrayfield kilt ensemble, the kids private-school sweatshirts, and strips.

They throw cricket and rugby balls. No-one kicks a football. That the shape of a ball defines voting intentions in Edinburgh speaks volumes.