Writers' Museum, Edinburgh

The Writers’ Museum is set inside Lady Stair’s House in Edinburgh, and its rooms bring together the lives of Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. The collection includes portraits, published works and personal belongings connected with these writers. It is run by the City of Edinburgh Council and sits within Makars’ Court, described as an evolving national literary monument.

As tradition has it, Scott’s hand-press was used to print Waverley. A pair of woollen slippers was given to him by Lady Honoria Louisa Cadogan in December 1830. Stevenson’s copy of The Bible in Spain travelled with him during Travels with a Donkey.

Burns appears through a looping soundtrack drawn from passages of his letters and poems. These displays make literary history tangible through tools, gifts, books and everyday possessions.