A walk with Robert Louis Stevenson

As a child, Robert Louis Stevenson frequently visited the manse in Colinton, where his maternal grandfather, Dr Lewis Balfour, lived while he was the Minister of the Parish Church. The Trust is planning an archway, a series of plaques, and a statue to line the way of a walk from the top of Colinton to the Dell, via the Long Steps and the Parish Church. The archway is planned as an ironwork feature at the top of the Long Steps and may contain the wording "The Long Steps: a walk with Robert Louis Stevenson". It should look like the one drawn onto the photo shown here, in this view from the belvedere. There should be an introductory plaque placed at the belvedere on Woodhall Road which overlooks this site. It is hoped that the belvedere will become a meeting place for people planning a walk in the Colinton area.

The plaques are to have verses and illustrations from RLS's A Child's Garden of Verses. Most of these will be on the wall on the right as you go down the Long Steps. Others will be on the churchyard wall on the right of Dell Road as you head for the Dell. One other is to be on the glazed door to The Swing Café (part of Colinton Parish Church). The designer of the plaques is Ian Boyter, of Boyter Design, Colinton.

The bronze statue planned for the small garden just outside the Parish Church gate is of RLS as a boy with his dog. Its size has been chosen to fit in with the surroundings. The current plan is that the statue should be of the style of the sketch rather than the one shown in the photomontage below. The designer is Alan Herriot, of Endeavour Art Studios, near Howgate, Penicuik.

Planning permission was attained for the statue and poetry plaques along with the public artwork at the Triangle was attained in July 2011. Fundraising for all of these aspects of the project is starting now.