Lee’s Landmarks – Scott Monument
If you find that organising electrical jobs at your workplace can be hard work at times, imagine the challenges that those running major landmarks have to face. Here, we look at some of the awe-inspiring stats of some familiar landmarks.
Scott Monument
Commemorating Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the Scott Monument is located in his birthplace of Edinburgh and is the largest monument to a writer in the world.
Celebrated for his historic novels, including Waverley, Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, Scott was also a poet and a playwright.
The monument, which is made of Binny sandstone, took four years to build after the foundation stone was laid in 1840 on Scott’s birthday: 15 August. It cost a little over £16,000, paid for by donations, including £300 from King William IV (Queen Victoria’s uncle), and public subscription. Designed by George Meikle Kemp, the monument is gothic in style and includes a statue of the writer and his dog, carved from Italian marble by sculptor Sir John Steell.
Essential stats
• Height of the monument: 61.1m
• Number of steps to the top: 287
• Number of statues of characters from Scott’s books and Scottish historical figures: 64
Electrical facts
• A lightening conductor was installed in the 1950s
• At the 2017 Scottish Design Awards, lighting company KSLD won the category of Lighting Design for its work lighting the monument
• The company used Xicato LED modules to create luminaries with hand-focused beams to bring out the best in the stonework, and added custom-made bollards to light the base
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