A 19th century sundial that was accidentally run over by a lawnmower has been restored to its former glory and is on display at Heriot-Watt University Museum & Archive in Edinburgh.
The stone sundial was designed and made in 1829 by Robert Palmer, a local schoolmaster in the village of Currie on the outskirts of Edinburgh, who was also a keen astronomer, with an extensive knowledge of astronomy and mathematics.
His intricately engraved sundial includes Roman numerals from 4am to 8pm, astrology symbols, the months of the year and around 50 place names including Quebec, Mecca, Mauritius, London and Waterloo.
Julia Stephen, Curator at Heriot-Watt University, explained: “When the sundial points to these places all over the world, like Calcutta or Jamaica, it means it’s noon in that part of the world.
“The sundial was really an intellectual exercise for Robert Palmer as well as an artistic one. He was almost showing off his knowledge.”
The sundial sat in the centre of the lawn at Riccarton Estate – a 248 acre parkland estate south west of Edinburgh that is now home to Heriot-Watt’s Edinburgh Campus – for around 130 years. The sundial was then removed in the 1960s when the Riccarton Estate was sold by the Gibson Craig family, who had owned the estate since the early 1600s.
“So for the last 60 or so years, only the stone base of the sundial has sat in the lawn at Riccarton, with no actual sundial on top of it,” said Ms Stephen.
“Then in 2022, the sundial makes a reappearance, when it is returned to the university by the Sudlow family, ancestors of the Gibson Craig family. But it is in a sorry state.
“At some point, the sundial had been damaged by a sit-on lawnmower, It had cracked in half and was literally in pieces. And it was almost black with surface dirt, so it needed reconstruction and restoration work.”
A specialist team of stone conservators joined the broken pieces back together and fitted a metal plate to the underside of the sundial to hold it together.
To celebrate its restoration, the sundial is on display from today, Wednesday 12June, until the end of May 2025, as part of an exhibition about Robert Palmer in the Heriot Watt University Museum & Archive.
The museum is on the lower ground floor of the Cameron Smail Library at the University’s Edinburgh Campus and is open 2-4pm on Wednesdays or by appointment.
About Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer was originally from Dumfriesshire and started teaching at the age of 17. He was the schoolmaster for 40 years in Currie, where he was also a friend of Sir James Gibson Craig, whose family owned the Riccarton Estate. The two men shared a keen interest in the sport of curling.
“Palmer helped set up the rules for the game of curling and he was a very enthusiastic and really good player,” Ms Stephen explained.
“As well as being the school teacher, he kept records for the local community. He was the local registrar, responsible for recording births, marriages and deaths, and also a kirk session clerk and president of the local Scottish school teachers’ association, so quite a pillar of the community.
“Children came from all around to be boarders in his school, because the standard of education they were getting there was significantly better than the average local school.”
Robert Palmer was also well known locally as a maker of sundials and the sundial he gifted to Sir James Gibson Craig is thought to be one of three he made. When Palmer’s old school was renovated around 1989, star charts were found painted all over the walls.
Heriot-Watt University has owned the Riccarton Estate since 1969, when it was gifted to the University by Midlothian Council, who had acquired the estate from the Sudlow family.
The address of University’s Edinburgh Campus is The Avenue, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS.
For more details about the sundial exhibition, contact heritage@hw.ac.uk.
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