Edinburgh

Writers' Museum

A free museum of Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson in Lady Stair's House, a townhouse of 1622 off the Lawnmarket.

Visit website

Welcome

At the foot of Lady Stair's Close, a turreted sandstone house with a round stair tower and a conical roof closes one side of a small paved square.

A carved hanging sign by the door shows a gilded writer at his desk, and pigeons wheel over the rooftops above.

Inside, the old house keeps its ornate plasterwork and a carved wooden staircase, and its rooms are given to three giants of Scottish writing, Burns, Scott and Stevenson, with their portraits, rare books, letters and belongings, room after room. Their lives make good stories even if you have never read them, and the house itself is a pleasure to wander. It costs nothing to go in, so it makes an easy stop on the way down the Royal Mile, even on a short visit.

Before you go

The museum is free and open every day.

Its rooms hold portraits, rare books and the writers' own belongings.

Open: Seven days a week, 10am to 5pm; last entry 4.30pm.
Where: Lady Stair's Close, off the Lawnmarket at the top of the Royal Mile.

Opening hours

Monday: 10am–5pm
Tuesday: 10am–5pm
Wednesday: 10am–5pm
Thursday: 10am–5pm
Friday: 10am–5pm
Saturday: 10am–5pm
Sunday: 10am–5pm

Did you know

Pigeons scatter above a turreted sandstone building overlooking a quiet paved square lined with gabled tenements.

Did you know

Scott's rocking horse.

Among Walter Scott's things in the museum is his rocking horse, beside the printing press on which his Waverley Novels were printed.

A turreted sandstone building with a corner tower rises above a cobbled close.

Did you know

A ring from a Samoan chief.

Robert Louis Stevenson's riding boots are here, and a ring given to him by a chief in Samoa, where he spent his last years.

A stone archway frames a view down a narrow close toward a domed turret and a hanging pub sign.

Did you know

Scots Wha Hae, in his hand.

The manuscripts include Robert Burns's own draft of Scots Wha Hae.

An ornate sandstone townhouse with bay windows, a round corner turret and a covered entrance porch stands beside bare winter trees.

Did you know

The proofreader's chair.

There is also a chair Burns sat in to correct his proofs at William Smellie's printing office, and his writing desk.

A carved hanging sign reads 'The Writers' Museum' beside a figure at a writing desk.

Did you know

First editions.

On show are first editions of Scott's Waverley and of Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.

Ben Lerwill

From our guide to Edinburgh

Literary titans don’t come much bigger than Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns – this deservedly popular museum celebrates the lives and works of all three.