Dugald Stewart Monument Edinburgh photo, Structure by Playfair architect, Location, Calton Hill memorial image

Dugald Stewart Monument Edinburgh

Calton Hill Memorial, Edinburgh, southeast Scotland, design by architect William Playfair

26 Nov – new photos around the Calton Hill area by Adrian Welch:

image © Adrian Welch

Dugald Stewart Monument Edinburgh Calton Hill

Date built: 1831
Architect: William Playfair

The Dugald Stewart Monument is modelled on Tower of the Winds in Athens, Greece by Lysicrates. One of the key structures on Calton Hill that help earn Edinburgh the sobriquet ‘Athens of the North’.

The monument forms a superb vantage point for the city and features on many postcards, calendars, etc.

images © Adrian Welch

Edinburgh Monument modelled on the Tower of the Winds

Sitting on the high plinth (requires a jump or leg up) looking down Princes St to St Mary’s Cathedral this monument is my favourite place in Edinburgh – the view is the stuff of legend.

photo © Adrian Welch

The monument is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart (1753–1828). It is situated on Calton Hill overlooking Edinburgh city centre and was completed in 1831.

Dugald Stewart was a professor at the University of Edinburgh, holding the chair of moral philosophy from 1786 until his death. The Royal Society of Edinburgh commissioned the monument and selected its site in 1830.

The monument is modeled on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, Greece and is a circular temple of 9 fluted Corinthian columns around an elevated urn. This example of the architecture of ancient Greece had been brought to wider attention by James “Athenian” Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s illustrated survey, The Antiquities of Athens, published in 1762.
source: wikipedia

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