Location: East Princes Street Gardens

The Scott Monument, which is over 60 metres high, was built in 1844. after the writer, Sir Walter Scott’s death. Scott was the writer who defined modern Scottish culture. The nearby Waverley station is named after one of his novels.

Scott’s Waverley novels of Scottish highland culture and life were typical of the wave of nationalistic sentiment sweeping across Europe at the time.

Scott’s works show how Scotland’s culture was linked to intellectual forces on the Continent. The Romantic movement had a great impact in religiously divided 19th Century Scotland. The Highlands in Britain became respectable again. The Highlands had been ostracised and purged after the Jacobite Uprising of 1745.  Scott invented a national story for Scotland, which endures today.

Scott was a towering figure in the Romantic period and ensured that a distinct Scottish identity became familiar to writers on the Continent. He became famous across Europe. Indeed, the Romantic movement had a lasting relationship with Scotland, where the effect on our architecture (mock-gothic galore!) and folklore is still in evidence.

Find out more about Scott with this link.

This is the last stop on the Edinburgh Central Eurowalk. To get back to your starting point (Wojtek the Bear monument) continue walking West along Princes Street for about 600 metres to about 108 Princes Street. The Wojtek the Bear monument is on your left in Princes Street Gardens.

Picture credits: Stuart Baillie Strong/Edinburgh4Europe