Skip to main content
An imposing building highlighted by a turret with small windows, showcasing architectural detail sitting in a courtyard.

The Writers' Museum

Meet three titans of Scottish literature

 

The Writers’ Museum celebrates the lives of three giants of Scottish literature – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

The Museum, located in Lady Stair's House, a 17th century townhouse, houses portraits, rare books and personal objects, including Burns’ writing desk and Scott’s rocking horse. We have Robert Louis Stevenson’s riding boots, and the ring given to him by a Samoan chief. There’s also a plaster cast of Robert Burns' skull, one of only three ever made.

 

The Museum is free to visit and easy to find - it’s just off the Lawnmarket, the top part of Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile, in Lady Stair’s Close. Whether you’ve read these writers’ works or not, you’ll enjoy the fascinating life stories told in our museum.


"...one of the top bookish destinations in Edinburgh...for people interested in literature." A Well-Read Wanderer

Highlights include first editions of Scott’s novel Waverley, and Stevenson’s beloved classic, A Child’s Garden of Verses. Manuscripts include Burns’ draft of ‘Scots Wha Hae’. There is also the press on which Scott’s Waverley Novels were printed, a chair used by Burns to correct proofs at William Smellie’s printing office, and Stevenson’s wardrobe - crafted by the infamous Deacon Brodie, whose double life may have inspired ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.