Calton Hill lies at the East end of the City Centre. From the top, you can see almost the whole city, including the Castle, Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Palace
The Scottish National Monument is one of several fascinating buildings on the top of Calton Hill. You can see for miles in every direction – across the city and beyond
In 1776, James Craig, architect of Edinburgh’s New Town, designed an obervatory that was built on Calton Hill. Then in 1818, William Playfair designed a second observatory, which you can visit. The observatory had a key function of setting the time. Wires from the observatory triggered the dropping of a ball from Nelson’s Monument and the firing of a gun from the Castle Esplanade at exacly one pm. Therefore, sailors brought ships chronometers to Calton Hill to have them set accurately.
Playfair also designed the Scottish National Monument to commemorate Scottish soldiers killed in the Napoleonic Wars. He intended the building to look like the Parthenon in Athens. Construction of the building depended entirely on public contributions. Work started in 1826, but stopped in 1829 due to lack of funds. Thousands of tourists pose for photographs every year on its unfinished stonework.
