Have you ever wondered how the view of the National Monument from Princes Street came about? Well it is “Thanks to Astronomy”.
Banner image: The view from Princes Street, East end.
The Minutes of the Edinburgh Astronomical Institution, the EAI, carry relevant information about this Monument. In fact the Astronomers were heavily put out by its proposed presence infringing on their view of the sky, let alone where it would actually be.
In short, they were here first, and they didn’t want any part of the Monument to foul the east/ west centreline of the observatory dome. But the original plans did foul this line.
When the foundation stone for the Monument was laid it was intended to be in the middle of the south wall of the Monument (which was to be 240 ft long). After much argy-bargy the Monument was moved firstly by 120 ft to the east making the Foundation Stone the south west corner and then the Monument was moved south by 30 or so feet to clear the centreline of the dome. The Astronomers had asked for less than what was ultimately decided – they wanted the centreline of the Dome exposed plus a bit, which only required a move of about 10 ft south.
My current understanding (from documents at RCAHMS) is that the foundation stone is below the southern edge of the 5th pillar from the north of what we see on the Hill today.
Bearing in mind that they ran out of money and couldn’t complete the Monument, it’s actually a good thing that the Astronomers got stuck in as the iconic view from Princes St would not exist today if the columns had been placed where they were originally intended to be!
This image shows the final alignment of the north edge of the National Monument with respect to the observatory as viewed from the east. Note how the Monument is just clear of the observatory, well south – over 20 ft – of the dome centreline.
Dr Bruce Vickery