The Gothic tower that watches over Edinburgh — and why most visitors only see it from the outside

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You can see it from almost anywhere in the city. A tall, dark spire rising above Princes Street Gardens, blackened with centuries of soot, looking like something built for a gothic fairy tale rather than a shopping street. Most visitors photograph it. Very few climb inside. That, it turns out, is a mistake.

The Scott Monument is one of Edinburgh’s most distinctive landmarks — and one of its strangest. The more you know about it, the harder it is to walk past.

The biggest monument to a writer in the world

Sir Walter Scott died in 1832, having spent a lifetime reinventing how the world saw Scotland. His novels — Waverley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe — were bestsellers on a scale almost impossible to imagine today. He created the template for historical fiction. He persuaded King George IV to visit Scotland, organising the first royal visit in 171 years, and convinced the king to wear a kilt.

Edinburgh wasn’t going to let him disappear quietly.

In 1840, construction began on what would become the largest monument to a novelist anywhere in the world: 61 metres of Gothic sandstone, towering above Princes Street and carved with 64 figures representing characters from Scott’s own stories. It is not subtle. It was never meant to be.

A monument with a ghost in its foundations

The man who designed it never saw it finished.

George Meikle Kemp was a carpenter and self-taught architect who had spent years sketching Gothic cathedrals across Europe. When the design competition for the Scott Monument was announced, he entered under a pseudonym — and won. Edinburgh had no idea who he was.

But in March 1844, two years before the monument’s completion, Kemp went missing in Edinburgh. His body was found days later in the Union Canal. He had fallen in on a foggy night while walking home. He was 47 years old.

The monument he designed was completed without him. His name is carved into the base. It is the only significant building he ever designed.

What’s actually inside

Most visitors see the monument from the outside. That’s understandable — the black spire is dramatic from street level, and Princes Street Gardens below it are one of the finest places in Edinburgh to simply sit and look.

But the inside is worth the entry fee.

The base contains a small museum dedicated to Scott’s life and work: first editions, personal letters, and exhibits tracing how one Scottish writer became one of the most widely read novelists in the world. The marble statue at the centre — Scott seated with his beloved deerhound Maida at his feet — was sculpted by Sir John Steell and has stood here since 1846.

Then there are the stairs.

287 steps and four viewing platforms

The climb is not for the faint-hearted. The staircase spirals upwards in a tight stone corkscrew, and the 287 steps lead to four separate viewing platforms as you rise. At each level, the view across Edinburgh shifts.

By the time you reach the top, the city opens up completely. To the north, the Firth of Forth and the hills of Fife. To the south, the Old Town rooftops and Edinburgh Castle. To the east, Calton Hill and the Salisbury Crags. To the west, the New Town spreading out in its Georgian grid.

Few Edinburgh viewpoints are better. Most are more crowded.

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The New Town on foot from here

After the descent, Princes Street Gardens is the obvious next stop. The formal gardens run east to west below the castle ramparts, and in May the flower beds are at their best. The park absorbs visitors better than almost anywhere else in the city centre — it never quite feels overwhelmed.

From the monument, it is a short walk west to the Scottish National Gallery — free to enter, and home to a collection that includes Rembrandts, Raeburns, and Raphaels. Most visitors still manage to miss it.

The New Town itself stretches north from Princes Street in its planned Georgian symmetry: wide streets, garden squares, and pale stone terraces. It was the most ambitious city-planning project in 18th-century Britain. It is a neighbourhood worth exploring properly, not just glancing at from a tour bus.

Why Edinburgh chose a writer

The Scott Monument tells you something about how Edinburgh sees itself. London built monuments to kings and military victories. Edinburgh built the world’s tallest monument to a man who wrote novels.

That is not an accident. Scott’s books did not just entertain — they gave Scotland a story to tell about itself at a moment when Scottish identity needed one. Waverley, published in 1814, is often credited with igniting worldwide fascination with Scottish Highland culture. The tartan, the romanticised landscapes, the sense of a proud and ancient nation — much of what the world associates with Scotland today flows, in part, from Walter Scott’s imagination.

Edinburgh put him on a 61-metre Gothic spire in return. It seems a fair exchange.

How many steps are in the Scott Monument?

There are 287 steps to the top of the Scott Monument, divided across four viewing platforms. The staircase is narrow and steep in places. Most visitors allow 20–30 minutes for the ascent and descent combined, plus time to take in each platform view.

Is the Scott Monument free to visit?

There is an entry fee to climb the tower and access the viewing platforms. The exterior of the monument and Princes Street Gardens surrounding it are free to enjoy. The monument is open year-round, with varying hours by season.

Who designed the Scott Monument?

The monument was designed by George Meikle Kemp, a self-taught architect and carpenter from West Linton. He won the design competition in 1838 but tragically drowned in the Union Canal in 1844, two years before the monument was completed. It remains the only major building attributed to him.

Every time you look up at this tower, you’re looking at an argument Edinburgh made about what matters. Not a king, not a battle, not a church. A writer. A storyteller who spent his life turning Scottish history into something the whole world wanted to read. The view from the top is spectacular. But the story it stands on is better.

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