Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
excavated from the foundations of the New Town and dumped here to provide a road link
across the valley to the Old Town. It was completed in 1830.
SCOTT MONUMENT
| Monument
(
www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk
; East Princes Street Gardens; admission £3; 10am-7pm Mon-Sat
Apr-Sep, 9am-4pm Mon-Sat Oct-Mar, 10am-6pm Sun year-round)
The eastern half of Princes Street
Gardens is dominated by the massive Gothic spire of the Scott Monument, built by public
subscription in memory of the novelist Sir Walter Scott after his death in 1832. The exteri-
or is decorated with carvings of characters from his novels; inside you can see an exhibi-
tion on Scott's life, and climb the 287 steps to the top for a superb view of the city.
| Gallery
SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY
(
www.nationalgalleries.org
; The Mound; fee for special exhibitions; 10am-5pm Fri-Wed, to 7pm Thu;
)
Designed by William Playfair, this imposing classical building with its Ionic porti-
coes dates from the 1850s. Its octagonal rooms, lit by skylights, have been restored to
their original Victorian decor of deep-green carpets and dark-red walls.
The gallery houses an important collection of
European art
from the Renaissance to
post-Impressionism, with works by Verrocchio (Leonardo da Vinci's teacher), Tintoretto,
Titian, Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck, Vermeer, El Greco, Poussin, Rembrandt, Gainsbor-
ough, Turner, Constable, Monet, Pissarro, Gauguin and Cézanne. Each year in January the
gallery exhibits its collection of
Turner watercolours
, bequeathed by Henry Vaughan in
1900. Room X is graced by Antonio Canova's white marble sculpture,
The Three Graces
;
it is owned jointly with London's Victoria & Albert Museum.
The upstairs galleries house portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Henry Raeburn,
and a clutch of
Impressionist
paintings, including Monet's luminous
Haystacks,
Van
Gogh's demonic
Olive Trees
and Gauguin's hallucinatory
Vision After the Sermon
. But
the painting that really catches your eye is the gorgeous portrait of
Lady Agnew of Loch-
naw
by John Singer Sargent.
The basement galleries dedicated to
Scottish art
include glowing portraits by Allan
Ramsay and Sir Henry Raeburn, rural scenes by Sir David Wilkie and impressionistic
landscapes by William MacTaggart. Look out for Raeburn's iconic
Reverend Robert
Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch,
and Sir George Harvey's hugely entertaining
A
Schule Skailin
(A School Emptying) - a stern dominie (teacher) looks on as the boys
stampede for the classroom door, one reaching for a spinning top that was confiscated
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