Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders'
Date 2007
Event ID 590497
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/590497
This fine monument adorning the garden at St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, was erected to the memory of Henry
Dundas, Lord Melville (1742–1811), First Lord of the Admiralty under Pitt. It was designed by William Burn and
modelled on Trajan’s Column, Rome. Robert Stevenson, as consulting engineer, finalised the foundations, column dimensions and superintended the erection. The column, built of Cullalo stone, is 152 ft high and about 1500 tons in weight. It was erected in 1821 using an iron balance crane of the type used by Stevenson at the Bell Rock Lighthouse. The 15 ft high statue of Melville on top by Robert Forrest was added in 1827. It comprises 15 pieces weighing 18 tons riveted together by gunmetal bolts.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
