On top of Calton Hill there is a great display of flags celebrating Trafalgar Day.
Today is is the celebration of the victory won by the Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, over the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 and the Depute Lord Provost laid a wreath within the Nelson Monument which is a council-owned building on top of the hill at a service organised by the Royal Navy to commemorate the day.
The monument which dates from the beginning of the 19th century is decorated with flags spelling out the message sent by Admiral Nelson from HMS Victory just as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to start: “England expects that every man will do his duty” and atop the building flies the Royal Navy’s White Ensign.
The wreath laying ceremony was held inside the building where there is a bust of Nelson who died in the battle and we have some video footage which will be on YouTube later today.
Above the entrance is a plaque with the words: “To the memory of Vice-Admiral Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, and of the great victory of Trafalgar, too dearly purchased with his blood, the grateful citizens of Edinburgh have erected this monument: not to express their unavailing sorrow for his death; nor yet to celebrate this matchless glories of his life; but, by his noble example, to teach their sons to emulate what they admire, and, like him, when duty requires it, to die for their country.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
