The Writers' Museum

Lady Stair's House

The Writers’ Museum occupies historic Lady Stair’s House, built in 1622 by an Edinburgh merchant burgess. Its name remains associated with Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Stair, an early 18th century owner. The building was gifted to the City in 1907.

The Museum

The Writers’ Museum celebrates the lives of three giants of Scottish Literature – Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Their stories are told through personal objects, portraits, manuscripts and first editions.

Visitors can see the printing press on which Scott’s famous Waverley Novels were printed, portraits of Robert Burns, and Stevenson’s fishing rod and smoking pipe. There is also a scale model of the Scott Monument and a display about its construction and architect George Meikle Kemp. You don’t need to have read these writers’ works to enjoy the fascinating life stories told in the Writers’ Museum.

More on the history of the building