![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/55ea3752-e404-493b-8588-1e452c17df4b.jpg\")
Makars\u2019 Court in EdinburghAlamy<\/p>\nEdinburgh University has pulled its share of funding for a monument to the victims of slavery that would be placed in the capital\u2019s Old Town.<\/p>\n
The university, which is trying to make \u00a3140 million of cuts, is one of the partners behind the major new work of art, which was envisaged at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the project insist it is going ahead. Council officials identified Makars\u2019 Court, just off the Royal Mile and close to the university\u2019s New College building, as a likely site for the statue.<\/p>\n
Makars\u2019 Court in EdinburghAlamy<\/p>\n
It is understood that Hew Locke<\/a> OBE, the Edinburgh-born sculptor, had been approached to create the work, which gained formal approval four years ago as authorities responded to the city\u2019s historic links with slavery.<\/p>\n The monument will cost \u00a3750,000. Initially it was proposed that the council would contribute \u00a3300,000 from its new tourist tax, with the university matching this sum.<\/p>\n Sources at the university, which came under fire after campaigners unearthed the work of Robert Jameson, a 19th-century scholar who advanced the notion of white supremacy<\/a>, said they had never committed to the project.<\/p>\n Edinburgh has, in recent years, been reckoning with its past links with slavery<\/a>. There has been a lengthy dispute about the legacy of Henry Dundas, who, as war secretary, dragooned slaves to fight in the British Army to defeat Napoleon and is commemorated in his own monument in the New Town<\/a>.<\/p>\n Terry Levinthal, the director of Edinburgh World Heritage, told The Herald newspaper that plans for the monument were still active.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe have supported the project and allocated funds from several funding pots, amounting to approximately \u00a3130,000.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funds for the sculptural elements were to be channelled through the Edinburgh Art Festival with some direct support from the trust for improvements to Makars\u2019 Court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were told recently of the university\u2019s withdrawal from the project, which remains on our \u2018active\u2019 file pending further discussions which have still to be bottomed out.\u201d<\/p>\n A university spokesman said: \u201cThe university has been clear about the financial challenges it is facing and we are taking responsible, carefully planned action to secure our long-term stability. This includes needing to make difficult but responsible decisions on costs across all areas, including reviewing funding for external projects such as this.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take our colonial legacy, and its contemporary impact, very seriously and our focus remains on the reparatory actions and long-term commitments we are undertaking following the publication of our own race review last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we have been unable to directly contribute funding to this project, it does not mean that we have withdrawn our support.\u201d<\/p>\n The Herald reported that there were hopes that philanthropists could come forward to make up the difference and that talks had taken place last week to find a way forward.<\/p>\n Irene Mosota chairs a group that is set up to take forward recommendations of the Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review, which gave the artwork its approval.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThis is an ongoing project. The Edinburgh Art Festival and other partners will provide an update soon. I am not in a position to offer further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, the Church of Scotland formally apologised for its links to slavery, including its role in providing a theological justification for the practice. <\/p>\n The Kirk\u2019s annual General Assembly, as expected, adopted a motion saying it was \u201cgrieved beyond telling by the extraordinary suffering we have inflicted \u2014 through our actions and our inaction \u2014 on our brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edinburgh University has pulled its share of funding for a monument to the victims of slavery that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-965743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116587608880398515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8bfa9957-5683-479e-8f80-d67dabf360df.jpg\")
Terry Levinthal, the director of Edinburgh World Heritage <\/p>\n![\"Irene](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8db0466a-92bb-4a78-972a-d135344e4880.jpg\")
Irene Mosota <\/p>\n