Sir Walter Scott Monument

Great spooky trek to the top. If you don’t like heights and tight spaces, good luck! If you can conjure up the courage to get to the top, you"ll be rewarded with a great view! Tight winding staircases that get smaller as you ascend to each level upward. People on either end of the staircase, often yell “coming up” or “coming down” due to such tight confined spaces, it is often a contortion act to get by. Fun, great photo op, well priced.

This is an amazing place to go and see the city centre from a height! You will see breathtaking views all around you, amazing!

I climbed it when I was a wee girl and stil remember it vividly.

Also, allows you to have a slab of chocolate cate guilt free after all the effort you put in to climb the stairs!

amazing !

Really enjoyed the climb up this amazing structure, a welcome retreat while my better half was shopping. Steps get incredibly narrow at the top but the views that open up are stunning. Only £3.00 aswell for a very enjoyable hour.

Wanting an unusual date? Climb the Sir Walter Scott Monument! It’s a lot less effort than Arthurs Seat...(although granted, you do have to pay!). Follow it by a picnic in the gardens, weather permitting of course.

Very distinctive monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street. This is very photogenic and any panorama of Edinburgh skyline will feature this landmark. It’s not immediately obvious that you can actually go into the monument, but pay your money and you can in fact climb almost to the top. You’ll be rewarded for you effort with stunning views, and do it during the winter festival and you can wave to the people at the top of the ferris wheel a few feet away!

The Walter Scott Monument can’t be missed as it towers up from Princes Street. If you are brave, not scared of heights and have some energy you can pay to go inside. You then have to climb lots of stairs but are rewarded for your troubles with an amazing view. I think there are 287 steps so its not recommended for those who have trouble walking or scared of heights.

The Scott Monument is uniquely placed on Princes Street, so that if you’re willing & able to climb the 287 steps, the rewarding view makes it all worthwhile. The steps do get a bit narrow near the top, so it’s not for the claustrophobic, but on a clear day you will see over the Forth into Fife, and enjoy the glorious panorama of Edinburghs city centre. Well worth a visit in my book.

The Walter Scott Monument is a really stunning piece of architecture and the local council had made sure that it was refurbished recently, It took forever and didn’t look attractive with the scaffolding around it, but it’s that’s all finished and with the stonework cleaned and repointed it’s now back in full glory. It’s a beauty to look at and in fact you can go inside (for a fee) and climb the stairs to the top. I’ve never actually gone up myself, but I’m told that the staircase is very, very narrow and seemingly never-ending! If you’re claustrophobic, it’s definitely not for you, but if you want a fantastic view, get on up there!

Another beautiful piece of Scotland’s history. Sitting on Princes Street it’s a great tourist attraction.

Not everyone is aware you can climb the monument, and although scary it’s a great experience!

This is in Princes Street Gardens, the stairway is very small though, especially at the top where the staircase is very narrow, and you can only fit one person onto it, so it is quite caustraphobic, so wouldn’t recommend it for people who get panic attacks.
This is a huge monument, and is very nicely done. The views once you get to the top is brilliant though and you can see right along princes street.
This is dedicated to the famous Walter Scott.

Once I realised that you could infact walk up this monument I was determined that I wanted to go up and see what it was like. It intrigued my that there could be a staircase inside those tiny pillars. Although it was a very very tight squeeze in some places and you had to try and squeeze past people coming down if you were going up and vice versa and also the stairs were quite tiring, the views made it totally worth it and I would do it again. Especially during festival time. Even though there are ALOt of steps there are little platforms that break up the stairs into sections so when you start to get tired you come out onto a platform and get to have a rest. There is also a small sort of museum on the first platform which is very ornately decorated and is very interesting. Worth £3 if you ask me.

This monument is so well made and definitely worth the walk up to the top. We went up during the festival and got an amazing view of all the people and performers from the top. It is a tight squeeze at the top but if you don’t get there then there is a lovely room part way up.

amazing and a must see if your into it

Sir Walter Scott Monument, also known as the “Gothic Rocket” a little monument where no one thinks that can acually check for close enough but if you happen to have the chance to walk from close enough, do take half an hour to go in…

Did you know that you can get a certificate saying that you climbed upstairs for the money of the £3 ticket? Check out the amazing views that you will see from up there. You can take the certificate saying that you climbed it even if didn’t…but if you don’t tell I won’t tell coz nobody needs to know, right? ;)

The monument has 287 steps in orer to climb upstairs and it’s actually made out of the same sandstone that the Playfair Galleries, although it’s all dark. It’s dark because it has absorved all the smoke from the Industrial Revolution, and because it’s located in the very centre of the Auld Reekie (which means the “Old Smokey”).

Dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, famous writter of many novels such as: Ivanhoe, Waverley Novels, etc. Please do visit the Writer’s Museum in the Lawnmarket if you require any more information about the author.

Just a curiosity, the actual statue is made out of Carrara marble and has a little dog sitting on Scott’s feet, Maiden. I invite you all to check it out!

Dedicated to the author Sir Walter Scott, whose marble statue decorates its base, this impressive Victorian tower rises over 200 feet (61.1 metres) above Edinburgh. There are viewing platforms at various levels, offering panoramic views of the capital; obviously the view from the very top platform is particularly impressive.

You proceed up the Gothic structure via a narrow spiral staircase. If you were to count each step you would arrive at 287 by the time you reached the uppermost level. It does become fairly claustrophobic the higher you go, and be prepared to skulk in to one side as you meet anyone on their way back to ground level.

The monument is made from shale, quarried in Livingston – the structure’s sooty colour is due to Victorian Edinburgh’s notoriously smoky atmosphere (when the city was known as ‘Auld Reekie due to the proliferation of chimneys). Apparently the tower was also Gerry Anderson's inspiration for Thunderbird 1 !!

In the early 90s the monument was covered in scaffolding for major repair work. It has now been faithfully restored. It is well worth a visit because it gives spectacular views of central Edinburgh from the very heart of the city, a stone’s throw from Waverley Station and the Princes Street shops.

This magnificent memorial to Sir Walter Scott stands proud on the east end of Princess Street Gardens and if you feel fit and have a spare £3 its one not to be missed.
The memorial took almost four years to build and stands just over 200 feet so you can imagine what kind of view awaits you at the top.
There are about 300 stairs to climb but you don’t have to do them all at once there are rest stops as you are making your way up.

I would say that some areas of the stairs can be quite tight especially if someone is coming in the opposite direction, but all in all this is a great experience

The dark sandstone face and elaborate gothic design of the Walter Scott Monument pays tribute to one of Edinburgh’s literary greats. The Monument (affectionately referred to as “Edinburgh’s Rocket” because of its shape) reaches to the skyline, promising some of the best views of Edinburgh. If you are feeling adventurous (and athletic), a mere £3 and 287 stairs will get you to the top and will unleash a whole new perspective of the sites and sounds of Edinburgh. While 287 stairs may sound daunting, you can pack away your hiking boots and heavy equipment as it is really not so bad. An official certificate of completion is your reward for the effort and is proof of your endurance!