The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It is the second-largest monument to a writer in the world after the José Martí monument in Havana. It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the former Jenners building on Princes Street and near Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station, which is named after Scott's Waverley novels.
Construction
Design and concept The tower is 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 m) high and has viewing platforms reached by a series of spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. The highest platform is reached by a total of 287 steps. It is built from Binny sandstone quarried near Ecclesmachan in West Lothian. It is placed on axis with South St David Street, one of the two streets leading off St Andrew Square to Princes Street, and is a focal point within that vista, its scale being large enough to screen the Old Town behind. Its size and elevated position cause it to dominate the eastern section of the Princes Street Gardens.
Stonemasons The erection of the Scott Monument came at a high cost to the stone masons involved, especially to the "hewing masons" who were responsible for preparing the blocks, with their carvings and statues. This work was done in closed sheds, where they were exposed to large quantities of dangerous fine dust. Things were not so bad for the "building masons" who worked in the open, placing the already prepared blocks of stone. Because of the hardness of the stone (from the Binnie quarry, near Uphall to the west of Edinburgh) used for the monument and other local buildings, Edinburgh masons were especially vulnerable to phthisis, the term used at the time for silicosis. One contemporary observer says that the monument "killed twenty three of the finest hewers in Edinburgh." Another mentions "one half of the whole number of masons employed" died of the lung disease.
Foundation stone
The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840 by Sir James Forrest of Comiston in his capacity as Lord Provost and as Grand Master Mason of Scotland. Construction began in 1841 following permission by Parliament's Monument to Sir Walter Scott Act 1841 (4 & 5 Vict. c. 15) and ran for nearly four years. It was completed in the autumn of 1844, with Kemp's son placing the finial in August of the year. The total cost was just over £16,154. The monument was inaugurated on 15 August 1846, but George Meikle Kemp was absent. He had fallen into the Union Canal while walking home from the site and drowned on the foggy evening of 6 March 1844.
History Following Scott's death in 1832, a competition was held to design a monument to him. An unlikely entrant went under the pseudonym "John Morvo", the medieval architect of Melrose Abbey. Morvo was in fact George Meikle Kemp, 45 year-old joiner, draftsman, and self-taught architect. He had feared that his lack of architectural qualifications and reputation would disqualify him, but his design was popular with the competition's judges, and they awarded him the contract to construct the monument in 1838. John Steell was commissioned to design a monumental statue of Scott to rest in the centre space within the tower's four columns. It is made from white Carrara marble and shows Scott seated, resting from writing one of his works with a quill pen, his dog Maida by his side. The monument carries 64 figures of characters from Scott's novels, sculpted by Scots sculptors including Alexander Handyside Ritchie, John Rhind, William Birnie Rhind, William Brodie, William Grant Stevenson, David Watson Stevenson, John Hutchison, George Anderson Lawson, Thomas Stuart Burnett, William Shirreffs, Andrew Currie, George Clark Stanton, Peter Slater, Amelia Robertson Hill (who also made the statue of David Livingstone immediately east of the monument), and the otherwise unknown Katherine Anne Fraser Tytler.
Modern administration In the early 1990s it was proposed that the stonework should be cleaned. There were views for and against cleaning and a scientific/geological investigation, including cleaning trials on samples of stone, was carried out. It was decided not to clean the stone due to the damage it would sustain. A restoration programme was undertaken involving replacing old repairs and damaged areas with Binny stone for which purpose the original quarry was re-opened. The fresh stonework contrasts with the smoke-darkened original. The overall cost of the restoration was £2.36 million and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council. The monument is now administered by the Culture and Sport division of the City of Edinburgh Council who in 2016 installed a new LED lighting system. The design of the lights was "intended to highlight the monument's architectural features with a soft warm glow" and were first illuminated on 21 September 2016.
180th Anniversary celebration Summer 2026 has seen the 180th anniversary of the monument acknowledged, with free tickets for twelve people every day being made available from 10 to 17 August. The Herald quotes Councillor Margaret Graham of Edinburgh City Council as saying: "The Scott Monument is one of Edinburgh's most iconic landmarks and a much-loved part of our city's heritage. I'm delighted to be celebrating its 180th anniversary by giving more people the chance to experience the monument, whether that's climbing to enjoy its spectacular views or learning more about the life and legacy of Sir Walter Scott.
In popular culture The monument is featured prominently in the 2012 film Cloud Atlas, as a location which the character Robert Frobisher frequents. An imagined copy of the monument is featured in the 1899 painting by James Ford, Holiday Time in Cape Town, depicting a Victorian era imagined utopian future Cape Town.
Statues and locations
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