10 Pounds Sterling 2017. World Heritage Site, Kingdom of Great Britain
| in Banknotes Book | Number: SC348 |
| Years of issue: | 21.09.2017 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Chief Executive: Mr. David Duffy |
| Serie: | Scotland |
| Specimen of: | 21.09.2017 |
| Material: | Polymer |
| Size (mm): | 132 x 69 |
| Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Edinburgh castle, view from north-west.
Avers:
On the banknote are shown:
To the right of center - a portrait of Robert Burns, inkwell with a pen.
On right side is the archways to the Edinburgh castle, view from castle esplanade.
Now more about everything:
The engraving on banknote is made after this first portrait of Robert Burns by Scottish painter Alexander Nasmyth, 1787. Today this painting is in Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
More about Robert Burns you can read here.
On right side is the archways to the Edinburgh castle, view from castle esplanade. (canmore.org.uk).
On left side is hologram map of Scotland with pointed, by dot, Edinburgh city on it.
Denominations in numeral and in words are centered, also in numerals in 3 corners.
Revers:
On the banknote are the buildings of old and new parts of the city of Edinburgh (Cultural site Old and New Towns of Edinburgh), which have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK in 1995.
Now more about this:
Centered is the Edinburgh castle, north-west view from Princes Street Gardens.
Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (II century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the XII century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. From the XV century the castle's residential role declined, and by the XVII century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognized increasingly from the early XIX century onwards, and various restoration programs have been carried out over the past century and a half. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the XIV century to the Jacobite Rising of 1745. It has been besieged, both successfully and unsuccessfully, on several occasions.
Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the XVI century, when the medieval defenses were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The most notable exceptions are St Margaret's Chapel from the early XII century, which is regarded as the oldest building in Edinburgh, the Royal Palace and the early-XVI-century Great Hall, although the interiors have been much altered from the mid-Victorian period onwards. The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland. The British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, although its presence is now largely ceremonial and administrative. Some of the castle buildings house regimental museums which contribute to its presentation as a tourist attraction.
On left side is the Edinburgh tram in front of Scott monument.
Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Transport for Edinburgh. It is a 14-kilometer (8.7 mi.) line between York Place in New Town and Edinburgh Airport, with 16 stops.
Construction began in June 2008, and after encountering delays it opened on 31 May 2014. The scheme had an initial estimated cost of £375 million in 2003, but by May 2008, when contracts were signed, the cost had risen to £521 million. The final cost after delays was £776 million.
After two years of the scheme achieved pre-tax profitability and has exceeded the original ridership targets. 
The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. It is the largest monument to a writer in the world. It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station, which is named after Scott's Waverley novels.
The tower is 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 m.) high, and has a series of viewing platforms reached by a series of narrow spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. The highest platform is reached by a total of 288 steps. It is built from Binny sandstone quarried near Ecclesmachan in West Lothian.
In terms of its location, it is placed on axis with South St David Street, the main street leading off St Andrew Square to Princes Street, and is a focal point within that vista, its scale being large enough to totally screen the Old Town behind. As seen from the south side, Princes Street Gardens, its location appears more random, but it totally dominates the Eastern section of the gardens, through a combination of its scale and elevated position relative to the sunken gardens.
Following Scott's death in 1832, a competition was held to design a monument to him. An unlikely entrant went under the pseudonym "John Morvo", the name of the medieval architect of Melrose Abbey. Morvo was in fact George Meikle Kemp, forty-five-year-old joiner, draftsman, and self-taught architect. Kemp had feared his lack of architectural qualifications and reputation would disqualify him, but his design (similar to an unsuccessful one he had earlier submitted for Glasgow Cathedral) was popular with the competition's judges, and in 1838 Kemp was awarded the contract to construct the monument.
John Steell was commissioned to design a monumental statue of Scott to rest in the space between the tower's four columns. Steell's statue, made from white Carrara marble, shows Scott seated, resting from writing one of his works with a quill pen and his dog Maida by his side. The monument carries 64 figures (carried out in three phases) of characters from Scott's novels by a variety of Scots sculptors including, Alexander Handyside Ritchie, John Rhind, William Birnie Rhind, William Brodie, William Grant Stevenson, David Watson Stevenson, John Hutchison, George Anderson Lawson, Thomas Stuart Burnett, William Shirreffs, Andrew Currie, George Clark Stanton, Peter Slater, and two female representatives, Amelia Robertson Hill (who also made the statue of David Livingstone immediately east of the monument), who contributed three figures to the monument, and the otherwise unknown Katherine Anne Fraser Tytler.
The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840. Following permission by an Act of Parliament (the Monument to Sir Walter Scott Act 1841 (4 & 5 Vict.) C A P. XV.), construction began in 1841 and ran for nearly four years. The tower was completed in the autumn of 1844, with Kemp's son placing the finial in August of the year. The total cost was just over £16,154. When the monument was inaugurated on 15 August 1846, George Meikle Kemp himself was absent, having fallen into the Union Canal while walking home from the site on the foggy evening of 6 March 1844 and drowned.
In total (excluding Scott and his dog), there are 68 figurative statues on the monument of which 64 are visible from the ground. Four figures are placed above the final viewing gallery and are only visible by telephoto or (at a very distorted angle) from the viewing gallery itself. In addition, eight kneeling Druid figures support the final viewing gallery. There are 32 unfilled niches at higher level.
Sixteen heads of Scottish poets and writers appear on the lower faces, at the top of the lower pilasters. The heads (anti-clockwise from the NW) represent: James Hogg; Robert Burns; Robert Fergusson; Allan Ramsay; George Buchanan; Sir David Lindsay; Robert Tannahill; Lord Byron; Tobias Smollett; James Beattie; James Thomson; John Home; Mary, Queen of Scots; King James I of Scotland; King James V of Scotland; and William Drummond of Hawthornden.
In total, 93 persons are depicted, plus two dogs and a pig.
In lower right corner is the Royal Scottish Academy, view from north-west.
The neo-classical Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh features rows of columns along the outside of the building. There are statues on the roof including reclining sphinxes and Queen Victoria.
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art.
Founded in 1819 as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, in 1826 it was named the Scottish Academy, and it became the Royal Scottish Academy on being granted a royal charter in 1838.
The RSA maintains a unique position in the country as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and architects to promote and support the creation, understanding, and enjoyment of visual arts through exhibitions and related educational events.
In lower right corner, behind Royal Scottish academy, is Highland Church Of Tolbooth St John's, but is now The Hub Festival Center.
The Hub, at the top of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, is a multi-functional building comprising a performance space and venues for functions, conferences and weddings[1]. It is also the home of the Edinburgh International Festival and is the central ticketing office, main information center and a performance venue for the festival, and a central source of information on all the Edinburgh Festivals. It's gothic spire - the highest point in central Edinburgh - towers over the surrounding buildings below the castle. The building design was the result of a collaboration between Edinburgh architect J Gillespie Graham and the famous Gothic revivalist Augustus Pugin. It was constructed between 1842 and 1845.
The inside houses the Hub Cafe; Hub Tickets, the central box office for the International Festival, which also sells tickets for a wide range of other events; a Main Hall with a capacity of 420, used as a venue for concerts, banquets, events, conferences; and two smaller venues, the Glass Room and the Dunard Library, suitable for smaller events.
Prior to the completion of the new Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood in 2004, the Hub was occasionally used for meetings of the Scottish Parliament when the Church of Scotland's General Assembly Hall was unavailable. The Parliament returned to the Hub for two weeks following the collapse of a beam in its debating chamber on 2 March 2006.
On top, left side, is the map of Scotland with pointed Edinburgh city on it.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners.
Comments:
Many thanks to the staff of the National Library of Scotland's Inquiry & Reference Service for the provided photographic materials and explanations on the buildings on the banknote.
If you find my work useful I will be grateful for any help in supporting the site.
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