The National Monument Nicknamed 'Scotland's Disgrace' That's Still Standing Today

It's hard to believe that an endeavor with so much support and good intentions behind it would end up being an embarrassment to a whole country, but that's exactly what happened with the famed monument. The Scotsman states that, despite the fact that only a fraction of the necessary funds had been gathered, 1826 saw construction on the monument commence under the impression that the rest of the funds would be on the way. But this never came to pass, and construction ended in 1829 with only part of the structure built. Another problem that the memorial faced was that nearby Edinburgh was quickly growing, which meant that numerous other civic construction projects took precedence over the monument, so it fell by the wayside.

Of course, if only the monument's supporters had paid more attention to the signs early on before its construction, perhaps it would've been met with a better fate. Historic UK chronicles when, in 1822, King George IV was to visit Edinburgh and raise awareness for the project, but the king instead joined some Scottish noblemen to go shooting for the day, severely hampering the progress of the memorial. An important lesson for all civic engineers: When your monarch skips out on a meeting to show his support for your proposed endeavor to hang with his buddies, it's best to put the project on the back burner.

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