Buccleuch Memorial to be Restored

as published by Edinburgh World Heritage

note - the Dukes of Buccleuch, serve as the Titular Chiefs of Clan Scott

Edinburgh World Heritage has announced that the memorial to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch in Parliament Square will be conserved, as part of the on-going programme of conservation of the city’s key statues and monuments.


The project will cost around £40,000, shared equally between Edinburgh World Heritage and the current Duke of Buccleuch. Works are expected to take around 4 weeks to complete, and will include treatments to the sandstone plinth and selective re-pointing in lime mortar, a light conservation cleaning of the bronze panels to reveal the original patina using a laser, and treatment of corrosion to arrest further deterioration.

The category A listed 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), and was paid for entirely through public subscription. The statue of the Duke shows him in the robes of the Order of the Garter, while bronze panels depict incidents from the Buccleuch family history and scenes from the life of the 5th Duke himself.

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. Sir Joseph Boehm (who designed the head of Queen Victoria for coinage) was the sculptor for the statue, the plinth was designed by Sir Rowand Anderson (the architect for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery) and the bronze figures and panels were done by Clark Stanton, Birnie Rhind, Stuart Burnett and D.W. and W.G. Stevenson.


The Memorial was officially unveiled on the 7th February 1888, by the Earl of Stair. It had cost around £6,700 paid for through 1,200 public subscribers. It has been cared for by the City of Edinburgh Council ever since.

Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch was born 25th November 1806 and died 16th April 1884. Inheriting the Dukedom as a minor, one of his guardians was Sir Walter Scott who organised the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822, when the King stayed at the family’s Dalkeith House just outside the city. Buccleuch was a leading Tory, and served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President in Sir Robert Peel’s government in the 1840’s. A great Scottish magnate, he took a progressive approach to the management of his estate businesses, most notably in the development of the harbour at Granton.

Sir Walter Scott wrote on 25 August 1826 that he "has grown up into a graceful and apparently strong young man... I think he will be well qualified to sustain his difficult and important task. The heart is excellent, so are the talents... With perfect good nature, he has a natural sense of his own situation, which will keep him from associating with unworthy companions."

Notes from the Life of an Ordinary Mortal records that "his great position and vast estates made him something of a grand seigneur, though his habits were simple, and his appearance rather that of an Elder of the Kirk. He always wore a dark grey cutaway coat, shepherd's plaid trousers, and a cap with a large peak, and out of doors carried a plaid over his shoulder. His manner was brusque, and he was fond of a rough sort of chaff, but no one had a kinder heart."