Blackford Hill Observatory, seen from the north. Blackford Hill was the site of the new observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1896. This observatory was founded following the proposed closure in 1888 of the original observatory at Calton Hill (founded 1776). Upon hearing of the threat to close the observatory, the Scottish astronomer James Ludovic Lindsay (1847-1913), the 26th Earl of Crawford, donated the instruments and library from his private observatory at Dunecht. The new observatory, like the original, was directed by the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, and is similarly referred to as the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. Today, over 100 years later, the library is still one of the most comprehensive astronomy collections in the world.