Tarves Kirkyard, Aberdeenshire
Visited August 2016
Tarves is a small village a few miles north of Aberdeen, with a most impressive tomb in its churchyard. Most of the graves date from the Victorian period onwards, and the church itself dates from 1798, but the site has been in use much longer than that. A Medieval church stood just to the south of the current one, and all that remains of it is the Tolquhon Tomb, a scheduled ancient monument and the tomb of William Forbes (died 1596), lord of nearby Tolquhon Castle (the ruins of which are also well worth a visit), and his wife Elizabeth Gordon.
The tomb itself is under a protective canopy, and you can't get right up to it, but it's worth seeking out, especially to see the carvings on it - although you can't quite see the small portrait statuettes of th couple. The design of the tomb is probably inspired by the 1532 tomb of Bishop Dunbar in St Machar's Cathedral in Old Aberdeen.
Leaning against the church wall, directly behind you from the Tolquhon Tomb, are 4 old grave slabs dating from the 1580s to 1630s, with wonderfully naive skulls on them, and inscriptions which remain legible to this day.
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