Completed in 1844 this is a monument to the Scottish writer
Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy etc) It overlooks Princes Street Gardens in
the centre of the capital. It is built from sandstone and would have been
golden brown when built but is stained black by coal soot. There was a proposal
to clean the monument in the 1990's but the only way of removing the staining was by grit blasting and that would have damaged the stone.
An impressive structure in a fine setting but not everybody
liked it:
'I am sorry to report the Scott Monument a failure. It
is like the spire of a Gothic church taken off and stuck in the ground.'
Charles Dickens, 1858.
Photos taken 29 October last year
b.jpg) |
| Thunderbird 3 - Gerry Anderson must have got the idea from the monument! |
