A prominent Edinburgh citizen during the nineteenth century who was (and still is)an incredibly successful literary figure. He was able to make his mark on Edinburgh in more ways than one.

You don’t have to walk along Princes Street just to see Sir Walter Scott for he can be found somewhere a lot closer to home. It was thanks to Edinburgh’s most prolific writer that Scotland got to print its own banknotes. Celebrating this event, the portrait of Sir Walter Scott continues to be found on every single note.

A successful novelist and poet (during his own lifetime), Sir Walter Scott was born in the year 1771 in Edinburgh’s Old Town. His vast body of work include Ivanhoe, The Lady of the Lake, the Heart of Midlothian and the stories entitled ‘Waverley’. This is where the name ‘Waverley’ came from when the restructured railway station was launched.

Sir Walter Scott organised the momentous visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822, an event which is famed for making clan-tartan wearing highly fashionable. It is ever since the King’s visit in the early nineteenth century that the fabulous kilt began to be commonly observed as Scottish national dress.