Calton Hill
— — the unfinished Parthenon, holding the city's wind.
Not only on a wall.
“The low volcanic hill at the east end of Princes Street, crowned with monuments that look as if a Greek city was started and then quietly set down. The columns of the National Monument were never finished; the Nelson Monument keeps the time-ball it has dropped since 1853. The view back across the Old Town is the picture most people carry home from Edinburgh. — from the studio
Calton Hill, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Calton Hill rises to about 103 metres at the east end of Princes Street, inside the Edinburgh UNESCO World Heritage Site that covers both the Old and New Towns. It is one of the city's three central hills, alongside Castle Rock and Arthur's Seat, and the easiest of the three to walk. Paths climb from Waterloo Place, Regent Road, and the lane behind St Andrew's House, reaching the summit plateau in about ten minutes.
The hill carries several monuments built in the early 19th century, when Edinburgh styled itself as a northern Athens. The National Monument, modelled on the Parthenon and begun in 1826 to commemorate the Napoleonic Wars, was left unfinished after funds ran out in 1829. The Nelson Monument of 1816 still drops a time-ball at one o'clock each day, paired with the gun at Edinburgh Castle. The City Observatory and the Dugald Stewart Monument round out the plateau.
The hill is open access, free, and reachable on foot from Princes Street in fifteen minutes. The most photographed view is westward across the Old Town toward the Castle, best in the hour before sunset when the skyline takes on the warm light the city is known for. The Nelson Monument charges a small admission to climb its tower. Beltane fire festivals on 30 April have been held on the summit since the modern revival began in 1988.