Scott Monument

The Scott Monument stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, a tall Victorian Gothic tower built to honour Sir Walter Scott. It is the second-largest writer’s monument in the world and dominates the eastern end of the gardens. The tower is made of Binny sandstone and reaches 200 feet six inches, with viewing platforms reached by 287 steps. It sits on axis with South St David Street and screens the Old Town behind when viewed from Princes Street. The monument is a focal point in the city’s skyline and overlooks Waverley station named after Scott’s novels. The monument’s construction cost many stonemasons their health. Hewing masons worked in sheds filled with fine stone dust and many died of phthisis, a lung disease caused by the hard sandstone. Contemporary accounts say the monument ‘killed twenty-three of the finest hewers in Edinburgh.’ The foundation stone was laid in 1840 by Sir James Forrest, and construction began the next year. George Meikle Kemp, the self-taught architect, designed the tower under the pseudonym John Morvo. Kemp drowned in the Union Canal before the monument was finished in 1844. Visitors enter a tower of carved sandstone with four columns enclosing a Carrara marble statue of Scott at his desk. Around the base are 64 figures from his novels, carved by sculptors including Alexander Handyside Ritchie and Amelia Robertson Hill. Sixteen heads of Scottish poets and writers appear on the lower faces, including Robert Burns and Mary, Queen of Scots. The highest viewing gallery offers panoramic views of central Edinburgh. The stonework shows contrasts between smoke-darkened original blocks and lighter restored sections.