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Canongate Wall vote

Have your say on which new quotes should be added to our Canongate Wall

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament building, we are adding three new quotations to the Canongate Wall, which runs along the outside of the Parliament, along the Royal Mile.

These new quotations will be provided by Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, and Kathleen Jamie. All three have been the Scots Makar, or National Poet for Scotland.

With input from the Scottish Poetry Library, a selection of their poems has been shortlisted – and now it's over to you to make the final choices!

Voting is now closed. Find the winning quotations below!

The results are in!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the vote.

Here are your winning choices:

Liz Lochhead

this
our one small country…
our one, wondrous, spinning, dear green place.
What shall we build of it, together
in this our one small time and space?

– from Grace, A Handsel, New & Collected Poems, 2012

Jackie Kay

Where do you come from?
'Here,' I said, 'Here. These parts.'

– from In my country, Darling: New & Selected Poems, 2007

Kathleen Jamie

Be brave:
by the weird-song in the dark you’ll find your way.

– from The Storm, The Bonniest Companie, 2015

These words are being sent to Perthshire-based stone carver Gillian Forbes, who will carry out the letter-cutting process, assisted by Cameron Wallace.

The new quotations were unveiled in June 2025.

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