Greyfriars Bobby

Look at the statue: it's tiny, and yet it's one of the most photographed monuments in Edinburgh. It shows Bobby, a Skye terrier whose story moved Victorian Scotland.

1The story as it's told

His master, John Gray, worked as a night watchman for the city police. He died of tuberculosis on 15 February 1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, right next door. According to the story, Bobby refused to leave the grave and spent the rest of his life there, fed by local people, until he died on 14 January 1872.

Some details are well documented. In 1867 a new law required dogs to be licensed, and the Lord Provost, Sir William Chambers, paid Bobby's licence and gave him a collar, now kept in the Museum of Edinburgh. After his death, Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts paid for this fountain and its statue, the work of William Brodie.

The historian Jan Bondeson argues that Bobby may have been a stray fed by visitors, and even that there were two Bobbies. His theory is disputed, but it's a reminder that the story grew in the telling.

2What to look out for

• The golden nose: so many tourists rub it for luck that the bronze wears away; the council asks people not to touch it.
• The low trough of the fountain, designed for dogs to drink from.
• Bobby's red granite headstone, by the kirkyard entrance, put up in 1981.