How to write about the Writers’ Museum without having your writing judged? Probably impossible, especially when you consider the specific writers being remembered and lauded are Robbie Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter Scott – sorry, Sir Walter Scott.

Scott’s chessboard, and the press his Waverly novels were produced on, and Burns’ writing desk are the key exhibitions but artefacts belonging to other authors help make up a collection that charts the history of Scottish prose and poetry from the 14th century to the present. Expect to find quite a few bibles, pipes and walking sticks. The courtyard of the museum has some lovely inscriptions commemorating some of the most famous local wordsmithing talents.

Entry to the museum is free but you’re not allowed to take any photos. And you’ll need to mind the stairs – when the house was built in 1622 it incorporated an early burglary deterrent – stairs of all different heights. The house is one of the oldest in the Old Town. You might hope that the house belonged at some point to one of these great men, but the closest any of them got to it was across the road – Burns stayed there on his first trip to Edinburgh.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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