National Monument of Scotland

Brief information

At the top of Calton Hill stands a monument that was meant to become the Scottish Parthenon, but remained only a fragment of it. The National Monument of Scotland was conceived as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors who died in the Napoleonic Wars. According to the inscription on the monument itself, it was meant to recall past deeds of valor and call people to future ones.

The design was developed after the model of the Athenian Parthenon, but construction stopped after a few years because of a lack of money. That is why its present appearance is important in itself: not an ancient ruin and not a deliberately created stage set, but an unfinished nineteenth-century memorial. It was this incompleteness that first brought it mocking nicknames such as “Scotland’s Disgrace,” and later became part of Calton Hill’s recognizable silhouette.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the three parts that actually managed to be built: part of the stylobate, twelve Doric columns, and the architrave above them. The stylobate shows that this was not a separate obelisk, but the base of the intended “temple.” The columns explain the direct connection with the Parthenon: the project called for an almost literal repetition of the ancient model, only with sculptures of Scottish heroes. The architrave is important as a trace of the halted construction: one of its beams later shifted, and it was restored during the 2008 restoration.

The material also changes the perception of scale. The stone was brought from the island of Craigleith, and the largest blocks were hauled up the hill by 12 horses and 70 people. So the short line of columns looks not like a minor unfinished detail, but like an expensive and heavy attempt to build a national memorial that froze in the most visible place.