Calton Hill Audio Guide

Calton Hill: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Calton Hill

   Welcome to Calton Hill, a volcanic hill rising just beyond the eastern end of Princes Street. It sits between the Edinburgh districts of Greenside and Abbeyhill, and it is one of the best places in the city to stand still and simply look. From up here the skyline unrolls in front of you. You can pick out Edinburgh Castle, the great bulk of Arthur's Seat and the jumbled rooftops of the Old Town. But the hill is not only a viewpoint. It is a kind of open-air gallery, scattered with monuments and buildings, including the National Monument, the Nelson Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the old Royal High School, the Robert Burns Monument, the Political Martyrs' Monument and the City Observatory. In the nineteenth century, Edinburgh pictured itself as the Athens of the North, and this hill was treated as its version of the Athenian Acropolis. That is why so much here wears classical dress. Over the next few minutes we will look at the unfinished temple that dominates the summit, at a tower shaped like an upturned telescope, and at a quiet burial ground below, where some big ideas rest.

2. 02

   The Parthenon That Never Was

   Look for the row of tall stone columns on the summit. It is the National Monument, and it was meant to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens. It was to be Scotland's memorial to the Scottish soldiers and sailors who died in the Napoleonic Wars. As early as 1816, the Highland Society of Scotland called for such a monument. The Mound was considered as a site, but Calton Hill won. In January 1822, a proposal was put forward to build a facsimile of the Parthenon at a cost of 42,000 pounds. Prominent Edinburgh figures backed it, among them Sir Walter Scott, Lord Cockburn and Lord Jeffrey. The foundation stone was laid on 27 August 1822, during the visit of George the Fourth. The design came from Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair, and building began in 1826. Then the money ran out. Work stopped in 1829, and the monument has never been completed. Today you see just 12 columns. For many years the unfinished temple was nicknamed Edinburgh's Disgrace, or Scotland's Disgrace, and it also picked up names like Scotland's Folly and Scotland's Pride and Poverty. Those harsher labels have faded with time. Now the broken-looking ruin has become one of the most photographed outlines in the city, a fragment that looks as if it has always been here.

3. 03

   Nelson's Tower and the Time Ball

   Now turn to the tower, the Nelson Monument. It was completed in 1816 to commemorate the death of Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place on 21 October 1805. Its shape is distinctive: it resembles an upturned telescope, a fitting image for a naval hero. The inscription above the main door is worth reading. It says the citizens of Edinburgh raised the monument not to express their unavailing sorrow for his death, nor to celebrate the matchless glories of his life, but by his noble example to teach their sons to emulate what they admire and, like him, when duty requires it, to die for their country. The top of the tower has a practical secret. A mechanised ball there is synchronised with the one o'clock gun fired from Edinburgh Castle. Its purpose was to give the correct time to the ships out in the Firth of Forth. So when you see the ball and hear the gun, you are watching a signal that once helped sailors set their clocks. It is a reminder that monuments on this hill were not only for show.

4. 04

   Philosophers, Martyrs and the First Panorama

   The hill's story reaches below the summit too. The Old Calton Burial Ground was the first substantial development on Calton Hill, and it lies on the south-western side. The philosopher David Hume is buried there. His tomb is a large, simple Roman monument, which he prescribed himself, and it is engraved only with the year of his birth, 1711, and the year of his death, 1776. The burial ground also holds the Political Martyrs' Monument, in memory of five campaigners for political reform and universal suffrage. They were convicted of sedition and sent in 1793 to Botany Bay, in Australia. Up on the hill you will also find a monument to Dugald Stewart, the writer and philosopher who lived from 1753 to 1828 and was born and educated in Edinburgh. And here is a thought that ties it all to the view. In 1787, the artist Robert Barker was inspired by walking on this hill and created the world's first panorama, an immersive 360 degree view of Edinburgh. It was drawn from the tower of the City Observatory at the summit. The hill's famous outlook has appeared in many historic paintings and engravings, and its observatory laid the foundation for Edinburgh's long tradition of astronomical research and education.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you wander on, take one more slow turn. From here you can look toward the castle, over the Old Town and across to Arthur's Seat, and notice how many different eras are stacked into one view. See what else the hill has tucked away. There is a cairn, unveiled on 10 April 1998, with six plaques attached to stones from places of importance. A brass cannon, presented to the city in 1886, stands near the monuments. And at the foot of the access steps from Regent Road is a memorial to three nineteenth-century Scottish singers: John Wilson, John Templeton and David Kennedy. Calton Hill is a place that rewards a second look. Try comparing the unfinished columns against the sky, then the telescope-shaped tower, then the rooftops far below. Each tells a different chapter of how Edinburgh imagined itself, and there is always another corner you missed.