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Closeup of the arches on a gothic style monument

Catherine Sinclair Monument


The Catherine Sinclair Monument sits in Charlotte Square. It honours prolific writer and philanthropist Catherine Sinclair who shaped late 1800s Edinburgh. Sinclair established soup kitchens for the city’s poor, founded children’s institutions, campaigned for public benches and supported the city’s first public drinking fountain.


The Sinclair monument is built in the Gothic style, similar to the Scott Monument. This isn’t entirely accidental – Sinclair donated to the campaign to erect the Scott Monument and was supposedly the person who revealed the anonymous author behind the Waverley Novels: Sir Walter Scott, of course!


The memorial to Sinclair was unveiled in the 1860s and paid for by public subscription. It is rare in Edinburgh for honouring a woman other than a monarch.