ABSTRACT
Although not ostensibly a monument raised to commemorate a writer or literary work, in many ways the National Wallace Monument in Stirling can embody and be the focus for a much more subtle and intense debate over the relationship between architecture and literature than any other structure described in this book. A tussle over ownership, meaning and the right to assign meaning has raged around the Wallace monument since before the first stone was laid. It is testimony to the continuing totemic significance of the William Wallace story in Scottish life that the debate raised by this hero building has evolved and mutated over a century and more, and is still alive, reflecting the contemporary concerns of the age.
