Ross Fountain

The Ross Fountain is located in the Princes Street Gardens of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named, not for its designer who is unknown, but for Daniel Ross who purchased it for the city in 1862.

Edinburgh's Ross Fountain is more often photographed with Edinburgh Castle behind it

The iron statue was designed and cast in northeast France at the Durenne Ironworks of Haute-Marne. It was displayed at the Great Exhibition of London in 1862. Although extraordinarily complex it is typical of classical French sculpture which celebrates the naked female form. The statue is plumbed as a fountain. It has been called both one of the most ornate and elaborate structures of the 19th century, and as “grossly indecent.”

[image credit timrawle]

Edinburgh’s Ross Fountain In Detail

Mermaids adorn Edinburgh's Ross Fountain

The large Ross Fountain features multiple figures: four mermaids adorn the lower level, and on the upper level are four other females who represent the arts, poetry, science and industry. Between the figures and the levels are basins for the water. Another female figure is mounted at the apex. The entire structure is gold-colored. Ross Fountain has been classified as a Category B structure. In Scotland this means that it is protected having regional importance, or as a major example of some particular period or style.

[image credit MikeLeone]

Edinburgh’s Ross Fountain, Installation & Renovation

Daniel Ross was a gun-maker and philanthropist. After buying the fountain it took seven years for it to arrive in Edinburgh, and was sent in 122 separate pieces. It was shipped to the port at Leith, and carted the three miles overland to the west end of Princes Street Gardens. The fountain was not yet reassembled in 1871 when Ross died.

The Ross Fountain is most often photographed with Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop

In the 1990s the plumbing of Ross Fountain deteriorated and the water was turned off. However, in 2001 a partnership between the City of Edinburgh Council and East of Scotland Water restored the piping and the fountain once again has water flowing from the basins to the pool in which the fountain rests.

A popular photographic angle places Edinburgh Castle in the background with Ross Fountain in the foreground.

[image credit Mich and Ed]