The Scott Monument is 200 ft high and the top is reached via 287 steps. Sir John Steell's statue of Sir Walter Scott is executed in Carrara marble and is more than double life-size. To me, the light marble form stood starkly against the imposing black pointed memorial around and mostly above. This is impressive to see. Well, Edinburgh is impressive and quite a nice visit as it is. Sir Walter Scott was author of Ivanhoe and other works of literature. The memorial is easy to reach from Princes Street in Edinburgh. The gothic memorial is given a slightly odd black colour. This is due to the choice of binnie shale - a stone that leaches oils contained within the pours and has acted as glue to soot from 19th century factories. I have no idea how dark the structure was when freshly completed. The gothic design is likely part of the gothic revival starting the 18th century and reaching just into the 20th for churches, universities, etc. (Gothic actually ended in the 1600's.) A note on the soot: Many chuches and structures in parts of the UK show darkening of coal soot from the many active chimney pots during winter times. After a terrible turn of deaths from a "killer fog" in the 1950's soot emiting fuels were banned. Still, to clean soot is often an expense of the owner of the building and is prohibitive in cost. This is what I am told is the situation, not dealing with it first hand. http://www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/scott_monument.htm I have flooded my gallery with historical vacation images and will now look for other sorts of photos from the trip to post.