CALTON HILL, though it does not possess the drama of the Castle Rock or the mass of Arthur's Seat, is readily recognisable to the stranger: it's the one with all the monuments scattered about it.

The visitor who climbs Calton Hill and wanders among these impressive memorials dips into a number of chapters of Edinburgh's history. But, first, look at the view. To the west, Princes Street and the castle; to the south, the Old Town with Arthur's Seat crouching in the background; to the east and north lie the Forth, the port of Leith, and our first glimpse of the New Town, of which more later.

National Monument

The largest of the structures on Calton Hill is the National Monument. It was conceived in 1816 (the year after the Battle of Waterloo) as a memorial to the fallen of the Napoleonic wars. Designed by William Henry Playfair, initially it was to be a reproduction of the Parthenon at Athens. It was begun in 1822 but funds ran out. Over the years the fragment has become an accepted part of the Edinburgh skyline, and indeed to many people this truncated war memorial has an appropriate symbolism.

Nearby, the tower resembling an up-turned telescope is the Nelson Monument, commemorating the victor of Trafalgar (1805), which ruined Napoleon's plans for the invasion and subjugation of this country. The monument, built in 1816, has an interior stairway to the top, where its celebrated time-ball was installed some years later to work in conjunction with the One o'Clock Gun at the castle.

There are two observatories on Calton Hill. The Old Observatory (1792) was designed by James Craig, the architect of the first New Town; and the City Observatory (1818), though superseded by the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, remains in use by the Edinburgh Astronomical Society and is open to the public.

The small, circular temple commemorates the philosopher Professor Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) and was designed by Playfair. The same architect was responsible for the nearby monument to his uncle, the mathematician and natural philosopher John Playfair (1748-1819).

It is not immediately apparent (unless viewed from the south) that Calton Hill was bisected in the early years of the nineteenth century by the creation of a broad highway, which was given the name of Regent Road, with Waterloo Place as its approach. Waterloo Place rests upon the Regent Bridge and cuts in two the Old Calton Burying Ground, which as a result now lies behind identical retaining walls on both sides of the street. Within the Old Calton are a number of significant monuments: these include Robert Adam's memorial to the philosopher David Hume (1711-76); a memorial to Scottish soldiers who died in the American Civil War, which is surmounted by a statue of Abraham Lincoln (the first to be erected to the president outside the United States); and a large obelisk, the Martyrs' Monument, which commemorates five political reformers who were transported for sedition in 1793-94.

Governer's House

The imposing building at the western end of Regent Road is St Andrew's House, a part of the Scottish Office. It was completed in 1939, just in time to deal with a mountain of administrative paperwork created by the onset of the Second World War. The building stands on the site of the old municipal prison, the only remaining fragment of which is the Gothic and castellated Governor's House.

In Regent Road, as a magnificent prospect opens out before the onlooker, stands a handsome classical monument to Scotland's bard, Robert Burns (1759-96), who was lionised by Edinburgh society. On the opposite side of the road is the former Royal High School, a classical building (1825-29) designed by Thomas Hamilton, who was inspired by the Temple of Theseus at Athens. In recent years the building has been put to a number of uses, and would probably be the meeting place of a Scottish legislature if such devolution of powers ever came to pass.

Burns' Memorial

Calton Hill also serves as our introduction to the classical architecture that is the hallmark of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town: on a flank of the hill stand the elegant buildings of Regent Terrace, Carlton Terrace and Royal Terrace, all designed by Playfair.