The Scott Monument, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland

The Scott Monument

This picture of the Scott Monument is for sale.

It comes as a canvas, a framed print, a framed mounted print or an acrylic.

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Monochrome long exposure looking up to the Scott Monument, from Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.

Situated in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens, and adjacent to Waverley Station, itself named after Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels, the Scott Monument is the largest monument to a writer in the world. Reaching a height of 200 feet and 6 inches, it is built from Binny sandstone quarried near Ecclesmachan in West Lothian (situated conveniently close to the Union Canal, which was used to bring the stone from the quarry into Edinburgh City Centre).

It was designed by an Edinburgh joiner named George Meikle Kemp, who entered a competition to design a monument to Scott following his death in 1832. Despite his lack of architectural qualifications, Kemp was awarded the contract to build the monument in 1838, and construction began on 15 August 1840. It was opened on 15 August 1846. Construction had cost £16,154.

Kemp himself was not present at the opening, having fallen into the Union Canal and drowned on the evening of 6 March 1844.