St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen

St Machar’s Cathedral, Aberdeen

Visited August 2016

I’ve written about this churchyard before, and perhaps wasn’t all that complementary about the site. In fairness, that was a dull, cold, damp wintery day. This time it was an overcast but warm summer day, and I had a bit more of a look around.

St Machar’s became a cathedral in the 1130s, when the seat of the Bishop was moved from Mortlach, Dufftown, to Old Aberdeen. Nowadays it’s a Cathedral in name only, as the Church of Scotland has neither bishops nor cathedrals.

The churchyard is rather crowded with gravestones, of people from all walks of life. Of course being Aberdeen there are a large number of burials of seafarers. Among the rather staid and plain granite headstones there are a few more impressive ones, especially at the back of the cathedral where the remains of the old site still stand. In this area there are some late Medieval bishops’ tombs, including that of Bishop Gavin Dunbar (d.1532), which is likely the influence for the Tolquhon Tomb in Tarves Kirkyard (see earlier blog post). There are also some carved memorials on the interior walls of the cathedral, and three rather weathered Medieval effigies of bishops.

In short, it’s rather more worth a visit than I first gave it credit for. Try to get a warm day, and I imagine if the sun’s shining it’s even better! Take time to look around the nearby Seaton Park or Cruikshank Botanical Gardens, and you’ll easily fill a half day.