Edinburgh's Writers' Museum in Lady Stair's House, just off the Royal Mile is dedicated to the lives and work of Scotland's great literary figures: Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894). Admission is free and it's well worth a visit. It is included as a clue location in 'Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh'
RLS was born and brought up in Edinburgh, went to Edinburgh University, practiced here as a lawyer and wrote much of his early work in the city. Sir Walter Scott was also born in Edinburgh, went to school in the city, and also attended Edinburgh University (at the tender age of 12 years). He, too, became an Edinburgh lawyer before embarking on his literary career. Although not an East coast man, Robert Burns spent a great deal of time in Edinburgh, arranging publication of his books and doing the social rounds. He began an affair with an Edinburgh lady, Mrs Agnes McLehose, and their romance is well documented through the letters they exchanged.
Robert Louis Stevenson
N 55° 56.999 W 003°12.154
The start coordinates bring you to the rather low-key memorial to RLS. In 1985, on the centenary of A Child's Garden of Verses, the RLS Club launched an international appeal to erect a memorial to RLS in West Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. The small memorial is surrounded by a small coppice of birch trees. The memorial was designed by the Scottish artist-poet Ian Hamilton Finlay.
How many silver birch trees are there in the immediate vicinity of the memorial? = A (odd number)
How many paving slabs are there leading to the memorial? = 1B
Sir Walter Scott
N55 57.137 W003 11.598
The Scott Monument is a Victorian gothic monument in Princes Street Gardens. The tower is 200.5 feet or 61.1 metres tall. The viewing deck near the top — from which there is a wonderful panoramic view — is reached by a spiral staircase with 287 steps. The tower is built from Binnie shale quarried in Livingston. Apparently, the oil leeches from shale and glued the notoriously filthy atmosphere of Victorian Edinburgh (hence "Auld Reekie" or old smokey, Edinburgh's nickname) to the tower, leaving it a sooty-black colour. Following Scott's death, a competition was held to design a monument to him. George Meikle Kemp, a joiner, draftsman, and self-taught architect won the competition. John Steell was commissioned to design a monumental statue of Scott for the space between the tower's columns. Steell's statue, made from white Carrara marble, shows Scott seated, resting from writing one of his works with a quill pen. Permission to build the monument was secured by an Act of Parliament, and it took 4 years. Unfortunately. when the monument was inaugurated in 1844, George Meikle Kemp was absent; walking home from the site on the foggy evening, Kemp fell into the Union Canal and drowned.
Take a while to climb the tower, as the view from the top is tremendous.
How many wooden finials are there on the roof edge of the entrance hut on the South side of the monument? = C
Walk round to the North side to locate the plaque. How many individual numbers are there on it (i.e a date would have 4 numbers) = 1D
Robert Burns
N55 57.210 W003 10.705
This grand memorial to Burns was designed by Thomas Hamilton in the style of a Greek temple, following the design of his earlier memorial at Burns' birthplace in Alloway. It was built in the 1830s, 50 years after his death.
Unfortunately, the gate is locked but it can be viewed from the pavement. How many lamps do any of the tall floodlights have? = E
How many letters are there on the base of the monument? = 1F
The cache has been temporarily relocated, so the calculations below are new as of 30/3/2016.
The cache can be found at:
N 55 57.UVW
W003 10.XYZ
where:
U = E
V = B-D-E
W = C-E
X = A-E
Y = A-B
Z = F