Makars’ Court

Makars’ Court is a small courtyard beside The Writers’ Museum, just off the Lawnmarket on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. The courtyard sits in Lady Stair’s Close and functions as a national literary monument, with flagstones inscribed with quotations from Scottish writers. The first stones were installed in 1997, and the court has continued to grow with new additions honouring poets, novelists and other writers connected to Scotland’s literary history. The enclosed stone courtyard, surrounding historic buildings and narrow Old Town setting give the location a very different screen identity from the wider Royal Mile, making it especially useful for period scenes, public gatherings and darker historic material.

Makars’ Court appears in Frankenstein (2025), Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. The production filmed several Edinburgh locations for the film, including Canongate, Bakehouse Close, West Parliament Square, the Signet Library and Makars’ Court. In the film, Makars’ Court is used as the hanging square.

In Frankenstein (2025), Makars’ Court appears in the gallows scene. The courtyard is transformed into a public execution space, with a gallows structure built inside the enclosed square. The scene uses the tight shape of Makars’ Court and the tall surrounding Old Town buildings to create a crowded, historic urban setting. The production had to work within strict physical limits because of the courtyard’s size, tourist traffic, nearby residents and the protected character of the surrounding walls and paving stones. The result is a scene where one of Edinburgh’s literary spaces is temporarily turned into a dark civic punishment site within the film’s gothic world.

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