Nelson Monument & the Time Ball
Why is it significant?
Stand at the foot of the tall, narrow tower on the hill's highest point and follow it up with your eyes. It narrows in stages like a telescope set down on its eyepiece, and right at the top, on a mast, hangs a large ball.
Key Facts
| Place | Nelson Monument & the Time Ball |
|---|---|
| Address | 32 Calton Hill, Edinburgh EH7 5AA, UK |
| Geo Coordinates | 55.95430, -3.18260 |
| Part of Walk | Calton Hill, Edinburgh: Monuments, Martyrs and the Athens of the North |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand at the foot of the tall, narrow tower on the hill's highest point and follow it up with your eyes. It narrows in stages like a telescope set down on its eyepiece, and right at the top, on a mast, hangs a large ball.
This is the Nelson Monument, built between 1807 and 1815, after Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Its shape is no coincidence: the navy was everything to a port city like Edinburgh and Leith, and the telescope was the sailor's tool. Around its base crouches a little castellated building, as if the tower had brought its own fort.
The ball on top is a time ball, installed in 1852, and it still works. Every day the ball is raised up the mast, and at exactly one o'clock it drops. Ships' captains in the harbour at Leith, two miles away, watched it through their own telescopes to set their chronometers, because an accurate clock on board was the only way to work out your longitude at sea. From 1861 the One O'Clock Gun at the Castle fired at the same moment, for days when fog hid the ball. Sound travels slowly, though, and the gun was heard in Leith several seconds late, so special maps were printed showing how many seconds to allow, street by street.
Every year on the 21st of October, the anniversary of Trafalgar, flags are run up the mast to spell out Nelson's famous signal: England expects that every man will do his duty. On a Scottish hill, flown in honour of a fleet with a great many Scots in it, the wording raises an eyebrow or two.
The monument reminds you that this city's monuments to peace and philosophy stand side by side with monuments to war and empire, on the same patch of grass. Now head down the north side of the hill toward the church tower below. The path is steep and can be slippery, so take your time on the way down.