Scott Monument

Rising out of Princes Street Gardens like the spire of a cathedral that forgot to build its church, the Scott Monument is the great Gothic exclamation mark of Edinburgh's New Town. It stands 61 metres (200 ft 6 in) high, a tower of pinnacles, niches and open arches, and it was raised in memory of Sir Walter Scott, the novelist whose books did much to shape how Scotland imagined its own past. Across the way lies Waverley station, named after his novels.

Its story belongs to its designer. After Scott's death in 1832 a competition was held for a memorial, and the winning entry, chosen in 1838, came from George Meikle Kemp, a self-taught joiner and draughtsman of forty-five who had submitted it under the pseudonym "John Morvo", borrowed from a medieval master mason of Melrose Abbey, for fear that his lack of training would count against him. The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840, Scott's birthday, and the tower went up over the following four years. Kemp never saw it complete: in March 1844 he drowned in the Union Canal on a foggy evening, and the monument was inaugurated in 1846 without him.

The stone is Binny sandstone from West Lothian, a hard stone that took a heavy toll on the masons who dressed it in closed sheds, many of whom died of lung disease from the dust. Over the decades the stone darkened almost to black, and when the monument was restored in the 1990s the decision was made not to clean it, for fear of damaging the carving; weathered blocks were replaced with new Binny stone instead, which is why the tower still reads as a dark silhouette against the sky.

Look closely and the monument becomes a crowd. Under the canopy sits Scott himself, carved in white Carrara marble by John Steell, quill in hand, with his favourite dog Maida at his side. Around and above him, in niches on every level, stand 64 characters from his novels by a range of Scottish sculptors, while kneeling Druids hold up the upper gallery. A spiral stair of 287 steps leads through a series of viewing galleries to the top, with a panorama over the whole city.

Getting there

The monument stands on Princes Street in the centre of Edinburgh, right next to Edinburgh Waverley station. Edinburgh Airport (EDI) is about 11 km away.