It was the Highland Society of Scotland’s idea to construct a memorial to Scottish Napoleonic War soldiers, specifically on Calton Hill overlooking Edinburgh. Thomas Bruce, Lord Elgin, who had controversially brought Parthenon sculptures to the British Museum, ensured that the memorial should look like the classical Parthenon in Athens. It was designed by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair, the former of whom had extensively studied in Greece and the latter of whom constructed many other Neoclassical buildings in Edinburgh. The completed plans would not have looked that out…
