Twelve Monuments Project Update

The conservation works to the Black Watch Memorial on the Mound and the Buccleuch Memorial in Parliament Square are now complete.

The Black Watch memorial was designed and built by sculptor William Birnie Rhind, R.S.A. and commemorates General Wauchope and the men of the regiment who fell in the South African War 1899-1902.

The Black Watch Association organised a re-dedication ceremony of the war memorial on 30 March, which saw veterans and funders gathering to unveil the newly restored memorial.

David McMicking, Vice Chairman of the Black Watch Association said: “Please pass on our thanks and congratulations to those who did the excellent work. I hope that it will stand proudly looking over Edinburgh for another 100 years.”

The Buccleuch Memorial commemorates the life of the distinguished politician Walter Francis Montague Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and the 7th Duke of Queensbery (1806 - 1884).

The memorial is now regarded as hugely significant in art history terms because some of the most important names in Scottish sculpture and design worked on the statue and the bronze panels, including Sir Joseph Boehm who designed the head of Queen Victoria for coinage.

At a reception in The Signet Library on 30 April, the present Duke of Buccleuch and the Lord Provost thanked all those involved in the project.  The project was made possible through the joint funding of Edinburgh World Heritage and the Duke of Buccleuch, along with the technical advice of the city council’s conservation officers and the specialist skills of Nic Boyes Stone Conservation who carried out the work.