nelsonãƒâ¢ã¯â¿â½ã¯â¿â½s monument

Medium

Photography

Artist Notes

Nelson’s Monument on the crest of Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland, replaced an existing mast with a signal-tower high enough to be visible to ships on the Firth of Forth and commemorates Admiral Lord Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It is shaped like a spy glass, and from the top (unlike Nelson himself, who saw no ships) you can see the ships on the River. The stone structure is 106 ft high with 143 steps from a base 456 ft above sea level. The really smart aspect of this tower is the time signal installed at its top in 1852 to enable ships’ captains to set their chronometers accurately. A large time-ball drops on weekdays, at 12pm in Winter and 1pm in Summer coinciding with the firing of Edinburgh Castle’s One o’Clock Gun.