Nelson Monument

This guide to the Nelson Monument in Edinburgh opens with a stubborn myth about the zinc-covered ball at its top, long said to weigh seven hundred sixty-two kilograms, a figure restorers who have handled it dispute. It traces the tower's construction between 1807 and 1816, funded by public subscription after news of Nelson's death at Trafalgar, and shaped by architect Robert Burn as an upturned telescope. Listen for how astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth's advice, decades later, connected the tower to the City Observatory next door.