Skulferatu #10 - Scott Tower, Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh

 

If you drive out of Edinburgh on Queensferry Road and head towards South Queensferry, the Forth Bridges and Fife, you pass Corstorphine Hill.  From the road it looks like nothing much, as all you can see is a scruffy area behind an old stone wall, with bushes and some towering trees.  There is no real sense of what lies behind this.  However, if you park up your car somewhere convenient and walk to the muddy path just off Queensferry Road, you enter a peaceful woodland haven.  Within a few yards it is hard to believe that just behind you is a noisy, polluted highway.

One of the old quarry sites on Corstorphine Hill

View from Corstorphine Hill of Forth Bridges and hills of Fife

When walking into the woodland from Queensferry Road, one of the first things you pass is Barnton Quarry.  The area is now fenced off.  It is a disused, stone quarry that was later used as a military command centre and nuclear bunker.  The bunker was built in 1952 and in the early 1960s was redesigned as a Regional Seat of Government.  This meant that in the event of a nuclear war up to 400 politicians and civil servants could shelter there, while the rest of us fried in the nuclear explosion or died in the nuclear fallout.  The site remained operational up until the early 1980s.  At the time of writing it is being renovated and converted into a museum and education centre.

 

So anyway, I slipped and slid in my inadequate footwear up through slimy paths of mud and dead leaves.  Around me birds sang in the woodland canopy up above.  Then after a bit further walking, I could see an old, stone tower emerging through the trees. 

Scott Tower through the trees

Stairs leading up hill to Scott Tower

This Victorian oddity is the Scott Tower (also known as Corstorphine Tower or Clermiston Tower) and was built in 1871 to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott.  A bit greedy you might think, considering that there was already the Scott Monument in central Edinburgh to celebrate his life.  However nowadays it is hard to comprehend the fame of this Edinburgh born novelist, poet, playwright and historian.  The man’s novels were international bestsellers.  In fact, it was said that some of his novels outsold the Bible, which at that time was quite something.  Nowadays his work, to the modern reader, seems very turgid and boring.  I did try to read his novel Waverley once for a university course, but soon gave up and did the work on a novel by Daniel Defoe instead.  Moll Flanders – a much easier read.

Scott Tower, Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh

Scott Tower through the trees

 

Scott Tower is situated at the top of Corstorphine Hill and is twenty metres tall.  It is usually locked, but pre-Covid was open occasionally to the public.  I’ve never managed to get to it when it has been open, but have been told that the views from it are quite amazing.  One day I will get up there and take a few photos.

 

Today’s Skulferatu was left in a hollow in a tree not far from the entrance to the tower.

Skulferatu #10

Skulferatu #10 left in hollow in tree

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #10

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are: Latitude 55.951069  Longitude -3.272677.