Pillars of folly

Went for a wander today whilst on our all-to-brief sojourn to the Capital city. The wander took us up Calton Hill; the first time either of us had been there.

It was a nice, clear day and I was really impressed with the fabulous view of the city afforded by this vantage point. I also learned a few things too, one of which is pictured above, my entry for the Weekend Blip-Challenge theme of "parallel".

This is the 'Acropolis' on Calton Hill, which overlooks Edinburgh. It was built back in the 1820s and earned Edinburgh the rather dubious title of the 'Athens of the North'. Designed by William Playfair, it was never 'completed' and has now come to be known as 'Edinburgh's Shame'.

It apparently cost £13,500 to build the 12 stone pillars you see here, which I guess was a fair chunk of cash back then. However, only having £16,000 in the budget for the whole project meant it was never going much further than this. Hence the embarrassment.

I reckon he wanted to build something that would look impressive, but couldn't get the cash together to do it justice. So instead of scaling back and building a piddly little monument, he decided to go for a full scale facade that looked the part from a distance.

Maybe he thought everyone would be so impressed with the early work on the project that they'd give him some more money to carry on. Little did he know it would be another 180 or so years before the powers that be would be happy to pour obscene amounts of extra, unbudgeted-for dosh into completing an Edinburgh building for the sole purpose of trying to impress.

Either that, or he didn't know how to use a scale ruler and/or multiply.

Had to back-blip yesterday's for technical reasons.