— By Dede Williams — 

Edinburgh’s annual charity Lego model show Edinbrick is an often sold-out attraction in Scotland’s capital, with visitors pouring in to gaze in awe at intricately crafted replicas of iconic buildings rendered in plastic.

A highlight of the 2025 show, to be held from 10-11 May, will be an 8-metre-long model of the Forth Bridge, in real life a 14 km cantilever suspension structure connecting Edinburgh’s Queensferry banks by rail with Fife.

Completed in 1890, the crossing made from 55,000 t of steel is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has beat out competition from Stirling Castle, the Caledonian Canal, the Scott Monument, Bell Rock Lighthouse, and Melrose Abbey for the title of Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder.

The first design for a bridge over the Firth of Forth saw it being made of iron, but as the engineers feared this would render it so light and slender as to be barely visible on a dull day, a material switch was made. To stand out, it was painted a deep red.

Not the same burnished shade as the original, and decidedly less filigreed, the plastic replica is in any case clearly visible in any light and robust enough to resist a storm of admirers as easily as its full-sized counterpart withstands gale-force winds.

The spotlighting of a local landmark at a show popular across the UK should swell Scottish pride, even if its promotion as “Edinburgh’s bridge” rankles some local Queensferry patriots, who point out that the anchor spot wasn’t even part of the city in 1890.