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Whita Hill, Malcolm Monument
Commemorative Monument (19th Century)
Site Name Whita Hill, Malcolm Monument
Classification Commemorative Monument (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Langholm Monument; Langholm Obelisk
Canmore ID 67699
Site Number NY38SE 50
NGR NY 37935 84686
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/67699
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Langholm
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
Early 19th century monument prominently sites on summit of Whita Hill, prominent feature in local landscape. Good views to surrounding landscape, and over Lanholm village to west.
information from Héléna Gray, (CFA Archaeology Ltd), August 2015
OASIS ID: cfaarcha1-278420
NY38SE 50 37935 84686
For quarries immediately to N, see NY38SE 246.
Monument [NAT]
[Spot height 355m]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1983.
NMRS REFERENCE
Architect: Robert Howe.
Built by Thomas Slacks, 1835.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Whita Hill: on the summit of the hill, a tall granite obelisk on a square pedestal, erected in 1835 to commemorate General Sir John Malcolm. It was designed by Robert Howe, with Thomas Slacks as engineer and contractor.
J Gifford 1996.
Publication Account (2007)
This 100 ft high white sandstone masonry obelisk, which dominates the local landscape, was designed by Howe and erected in 1835 to the memory of Eskdale-born diplomatist and administrator Sir John Malcolm who had died two years earlier. It is situated on top of Whita Hill, a mile to the east of Langholm, and reached by footpath. Two engineers helped in its creation, Telford and, indirectly, Robert Stevenson. Telford, who had known Sir John Malcolm well and had written a laudatory poem to him in 1831, was the monument’s leading promoter, subscribing £50 out of the total of £396 by 188 well-wishers, but did not live to see it built.
The cost of erection of the obelisk by the ingenious Mr. T. Slack of Langholm was greatly reduced by the use of a modified version of the balance crane invented by Francis Watt under the direction of Stevenson for erecting
Bell Rock Lighthouse (1810) and the Melville Column, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh (1821). For this development, and innovative hanging scaffolding used for completing the pyramidal top of the monument, Slack was awarded the Gold Isis Medal of the Society of Arts.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
Project (29 May 2014)
An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology Ltd, a desk based assessment and walk over survey (May 29th 2014) was conducted
The historic environment record within the Site Boundary is relatively limited, although there is some potential for the proposed development site to contain previously unknown heritage assets from at least the later prehistoric period onwards, given the historic landscape character of the wider area. Taking this into account, the archaeological potential of the proposed development site is considered to be low.
A summary assessment, on a site by site basis, of the predicted effects on the settings of assets within a 10km radius where the blade tip ZTV indicates that there would be theoretical views of one or more turbines
information from Héléna Gray, (CFA Archaeology Ltd), August 2015
OASIS ID: cfaarcha1-278420
