The National Monument: Edinburgh's Disgrace
Why is it significant?
Walk up onto the stepped stone base and stand between the columns. Twelve enormous Doric pillars rise in a row, carrying a heavy beam, and behind them... nothing at all. Just sky, grass and the wind coming off the Firth of Forth.
Key Facts
| Place | The National Monument: Edinburgh's Disgrace |
|---|---|
| Address | Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95510, -3.18160 |
| Part of Walk | Calton Hill, Edinburgh: Monuments, Martyrs and the Athens of the North |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk up onto the stepped stone base and stand between the columns. Twelve enormous Doric pillars rise in a row, carrying a heavy beam, and behind them... nothing at all. Just sky, grass and the wind coming off the Firth of Forth.
This was meant to be Scotland's National Monument to the soldiers and sailors who died in the wars against Napoleon. And it was meant to be nothing less than a full-sized copy of the Parthenon in Athens, with a church or hall of honour inside. The foundation stone was laid in 1822, during King George the Fourth's famous visit to Edinburgh, and the design was by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair.
Then reality arrived. Work began in 1826, the public subscription brought in only a fraction of what was needed, and in 1829 the money ran out completely. Twelve columns stood, and that was where it stopped. Edinburgh, never kind to itself, promptly nicknamed it Scotland's Disgrace, or Edinburgh's Folly. The stones were cut from Craigleith quarry on the edge of the city, and some of the blocks were so heavy that it took teams of horses and dozens of men to drag each one up the hill.
And yet, almost two centuries later, the city loves it. Several proposals to finish it have come and gone, and each time people preferred the ruin. Unfinished, it looks more like a real Greek temple than a completed copy ever would, and it fits perfectly with the idea of Edinburgh as the Athens of the North.
Every year on the night of the 30th of April, the hill fills with drums, fire and painted dancers for the Beltane Fire Festival, a revival of the old Celtic feast of the start of summer, held here since 1988. Then the columns glow orange in the dark. Now walk south across the summit to the tall, narrow tower that looks like a telescope standing on its end.