National Monument of Scotland

About this place

Twelve enormous columns stand on a stone platform at the top of Calton Hill, and behind them there is nothing at all. This was to be Edinburgh's Parthenon, a memorial to the Scots killed in the Napoleonic Wars, but the money ran out in 1829 after just three years of building. Roughly £16,000 of the £42,000 needed had been raised, and the work simply stopped. For nearly two centuries the city has mocked its own half-temple as «Edinburgh's Disgrace» and «Scotland's Folly» - and the joke is that the failure became one of the most photographed silhouettes in the city and the anchor of its whole «Athens of the North» image. The architects were Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair, and the foundation stone was laid in August 1822 during George IV's visit. There is no door, no ticket and no opening time: Calton Hill is a public park open around the clock. From Waterloo Place at the east end of Princes Street a stone staircase gets you up in five to ten minutes; the gentler paved road from Regent Road takes a little longer but works with a pushchair. Children love it here because you can scramble onto the plinth and sit between the columns as if inside a real Greek temple - though the plinth is a high step up, so small ones need a lift. Be honest with yourself: the monument itself takes ten minutes. What earns the climb is everything around it. On the same summit stand the Nelson Monument, shaped like an upturned telescope, the little circular Dugald Stewart Monument that appears on every Edinburgh postcard, and the old City Observatory. In front of you is the best view in the city: Princes Street and the castle one way, Holyrood Palace and the crags of Arthur's Seat the other. In July and August the summit fills before sunset with hundreds of people and raised phones; go in the morning if you want it to yourself. It is windy up here in every season, and in winter the sun sets before four and the paths turn slippery, so bring a heavy jacket and proper shoes. Facilities on the summit are limited to the old observatory complex: a daytime café, a restaurant that serves alcohol, and toilets inside the Collective gallery during its opening hours (Wednesday to Sunday), so treat this as a short stroll rather than a stop with services.