Allan Ramsay Monument, West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh is a Grade A listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 14 December 1970. Monument.
Allan Ramsay Monument, West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
- WRENN ID
- moated-pedestal-clover
- Grade
- A
- Local Planning Authority
- City of Edinburgh
- Constituency
- Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 14 December 1970
- Type
- Monument
- Address
- Allan Ramsay Monument, West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, EH2 2HG
- OS grid reference
- NT 253 738
- Coordinates
- 55.9517, -3.19734
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
The Allan Ramsay Monument, located in West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, was designed by Sir John Steell in 1850 and later by David Bryce in 1865. It features a pedestrian figure of Allan Ramsay dressed in 18th century costume, complete with a cape and holding a book. The figure is made of Carrara marble and stands on a square-plan corniced ashlar pedestal. This pedestal is adorned with Corinthian colonnettes at the corners and high relief sculpted profile portraits on each side.
The monument's square-plan Baronial substructure, designed by Bryce, is constructed from stugged sandstone with polished dressings. It includes a timber boarded door on the west elevation, which has decorative iron hinges and is set within a roll-moulded surround topped with a rope hoodmould. The corners of the substructure are stop-chamfered, and it features corbelled corners above that are decorated with carved masks. Additionally, there is rope moulding and cannon spouts along the corbel course, and the roof is finished with a balustrade that has semicircular corners.
Local climate
Allan Ramsay Monument, West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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