Edinburgh
Town Guide
Edinburgh Town Guide, Sir Walter Scott, 6K

The author Sir Walter Scott is one of Edinburgh's best known past residents.

Edinburgh Town Guide, Scott, 1K Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771, son of an officer of the law. He began his working life by following in his father's footsteps, working in the legal profession - but he also had a great love of literature.

This love is said to have been inspired by the stories of Scottish folklore that Scott heard as a child, and indeed much of his written work involved setting these stories down on paper.

His most famous series of works however, is the Waverley novels that were published in the early 18th century. Indeed Edinburgh's main train station is named after the Waverley series.

Not only famed for his writing, Scott is also well remembered for orchestrating George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822. This was a particularly significant event for it was the first time in nearly 200 years that a reigning monarch had visited the city.

Scott had a central role in the celebrations and he is well remembered for the tartan costumes that he decked people out in. Prior to this event, tartan was a little used cloth, and certainly had none of the connotations of clan identity that it has today.

Therefore it was as a direct result of Scott's imagination that the romantic myth of the kilt-wearing Scottish Highlander was born - the lasting legacy of which can be seen in the profusion of tartan garments for sale along the Royal Mile.

The Writer's Museum in Lady Stair's House on the Lawnmarket stretch of the Royal Mile tells the story of Scott's life and works, along with those of other great Edinburgh writers Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson.

There is also the impressive Scott Monument in Princes Street Gardens which, at 200ft high, is the largest monument to any writer in the UK.




Edinburgh A-Z

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | Y | Z |



Edinburgh Town Guide Home Page

Travel Advice | Accommodation in Edinburgh | Other Town Guides