Scott Monument, Edinburgh

The Scott Monument rises as a Victorian Gothic memorial to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, dominating the eastern section of Princes Street Gardens. Its architect was George Meikle Kemp, a self-taught designer who won the commission under the pseudonym John Morvo. Beneath the tower, John Steell’s white Carrara marble statue shows Scott seated with a quill and his dog Maida beside him.

The monument is 200 feet 6 inches high and contains viewing platforms reached by spiral stairs; the highest platform requires 287 steps. Look at the carved figures distributed across the structure: 64 characters from Scott’s novels can be seen on the monument, while eight kneeling Druids support the final viewing gallery. The stone is Binny sandstone, quarried near Ecclesmachan in West Lothian.

That hard material carried a grim human cost. A contemporary observer reported that the work killed 23 Edinburgh hewers, who prepared the carved blocks in dusty sheds. The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840, and the monument was inaugurated on 15 August 1846.

Kemp did not attend: he had drowned in the Union Canal in 1844 while walking home from the site. The fresh stone used in restoration now contrasts with the smoke-darkened original.