About the Canongate Wall
Under the façade of the Canongate building is the Canongate Wall. The overall design for the Canongate Wall was by Soraya Smithson, at the invitation of architects EMBT. The wall contains a range of Scottish stones, letter-cut by Gillian Forbes and Martin Reilly. The design pays tribute to the creative ideas and imagination of the Scottish Parliament's lead architect, Enric Miralles.
At the lower end of the wall is a townscape based around sketches by Miralles of Edinburgh's Old Town, as viewed from the Balmoral Hotel.
The 26 quotations, of relevance to Scotland and the Parliament, range from well-loved pieces of poetry to proverbs and psalms. There are quotations in English, Gaelic and Scots and many of Scotland's leading writers are represented.
Help us choose what should go on the Wall next!
A brief history of the Wall
The original 24 quotations were chosen from a selection of material made available to an Art Steering Group, including previous MSPs – Jamie Stone, Kenneth Macintosh and Michael Russell. The material considered included submissions from members of the public.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Scottish Parliament and ten years of devolution, the SPCB agreed that two new quotations should be added to the Canongate Wall. Public suggestions were invited via the Parliament website and via postcards distributed to book festivals and libraries across Scotland, and almost 300 suggestions were received. A panel of MSPs and external experts met to consider these suggestions. The panel selected two new quotations, one by Norman MacCaig and one by Mary Brooksbank (the first woman to be represented on the Wall), bringing the total number of quotations to 26.
Canongate Wall quotations
View all the quotations inscribed on the Canongate Wall, along with the the type of stone and where it was sourced:
Tap the arrow to expand the full list of quotations
Oh, dear me, the warld’s ill-divided,
Them that work the hardest are aye wi’ least provided,
But I maun bide contented, dark days or fine,
But there’s no much pleasure livin’ affen ten and nine.
Mary Brooksbank (1897 - 1978), Oh Dear Me (The Jute Mill Song)
Iona Marble - Iona, Argyll
Who possesses this landscape? -
The man who bought it or
I who am possessed by it?
False questions, for
this landscape is
masterless
and intractable in any terms
that are human.
Norman MacCaig (1910 - 1996), A Man in Assynt
Bressay Sandstone - Shetland Islands
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
Cove Red Sandstone - Annan, Dumfries and Galloway
There is hope in honest error;
None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)
Kemnay Granite - Aberdeenshire
Bright is the ring of words.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) "Songs of Travel"
Lewissian Gneiss - Lochinver, Sutherland
Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.
Alasdair Gray (1934-2019)
© Canongate Press (paraphrased from Dennis Lee’s Civil Elegies. Toronto: Anansi,1972)
Iona Marble - Iona, Argyll
When we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o' our ain, we could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns - But naebody's nails can reach the length o' Lunnon.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Mrs Howden in "Heart of Midlothian"
Easdale Slate - Easdale Island, Argyll
Sweet ghosts in a loving band
Roam through the houses that stand -
For the builders are not gone.
George Macdonald (1824-1905) "Song"
Giffnock Sandstone - Glasgow
Put all your eggs into one basket -and then watch that basket.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
Glen Tilt Marble - Blair Atholl, Perthshire
What a lovely, lovely moon.
And it's in the constituency too.
Alan Jackson (1938-) "The Young Politician Looks at the Moon"
© the author
Easdale Slate - Easdale Island, Argyll
From the lone sheiling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas -
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.
Anonymous "Canadian Boat Song" First appeared 1829
Ardkinglas - Cairndow, Argyll
Is i Alba nan Gall's nan Gaidheal is gàire is blàth is beatha dhomh.
It is Scotland, Highland and Lowland that is laughter and warmth and life for me.
George Campbell Hay (1915-1984) "The Four Winds of Scotland"
© W L Lorimer Memorial Trust
Pipe rock - Ledmore, Highlands
The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.
Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) "The Little White Rose"
© Carcanet Press
Cullaloe Sandstone - Aberdour, Sandstone
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An' foolish notion.
Robert Burns (1759-1796) "To a Louse"
Ardkinglas - Cairndow, Argyll
But Edinburgh is a mad god's dream
Fitful and dark,
Unseizable in Leith
And wildered by the Forth,
But irresistibly at last
Cleaving to sombre heights
Of passionate imagining
Till stonily,
From soaring battlements,
Earth eyes Eternity.
Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978)
© Carcanet Press
Lewissian Gneiss - Lochinver, Sutherland
Abair ach beagan is abair gu math e.
Seannfhacal
Say but little and say it well.
Proverb
Caithness Flagstone - Spittal, Caithness
So, cam' all ye at hame wi' freedom
Never heed whit the hoodies croak for doom
In your hoose a' the bairns o' Adam
Can find breid, barley bree an' painted room.
Hamish Henderson (1919-2002) "The Freedom come all ye"
© Estate of Hamish Henderson
Corrennie Granite - Aberdeenshire
This is my country,
The land that begat me.
These windy spaces
Are surely my own.
And those who toil here
In the sweat of their faces
Are flesh of my flesh,
And bone of my bone.
Sir Alexander Gray (1882-1968) "Scotland"
© John Gray
Whinstone - Caldercruix, West Lothian
tell us about last night
well, we had a wee ferintosh and we lay on the quiraing. it was pure strontian!
Edwin Morgan (1920-2010)
© Carcanet Press
Clashach Sandstone - Elgin, Morayshire
The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal battle between right and wrong.
John Muir (1838-1914)
Ross of Mull Granite - Fionnphort, Argyll
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man the world o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that.
Robert Burns (1759-1796) "A Man's A Man for A' That"
Errochty - Struan, Perthshire
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) "Inversnaid"
Carmyllie Sandstone - Angus
Am fear as fheàrr a chuireas
'S e as fheàrr a bhuineas.
Seannfhacal
He who sowest best reapest best.
Proverb
Torridonian Sandstone - Ullapool, Highlands
To promise is ae thing, to keep it is anither.
Proverb
Knowehead Sandstone - Dumfries
(I knew a very wise man who believed that) if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.
Andrew Fletcher (1655-1716)
Ledmore Marble - Ledmore Quarry, Highlands
Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) "Scotland Small?"
Grey Granite Beach Boulder - Dunbeath Beach, Caithness
Visit the Canongate Wall
The Canongate Wall forms part of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, and so it is always open and visible to the public. Complement your visit to the Canongate Wall by coming inside and joining a free guided tour of the Scottish Parliament building.
Find out more on our Visit page
Curious to learn more about the history of the organisation?
Location
Near the bottom of the Royal Mile, in the Canongate
Days and times
Free to access all year round
Explore some of the quotes on the Canongate Wall...
