New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh
Visited June 2017
The New Calton Burial Ground was created as an overspill for Old Calton Burial Ground, half a mile away.
The graves are, of course, mainly newer than the ones in the older site, but the burial ground has amazing views over the south of the city, including Holyrood Place, Arthur's Seat and out to the Forth in the far distance. It's also the home of bodies disinterred from the old burial ground when Waterloo Place was constructed, so it includes gravestones older than the burial ground itself! The first actual burial (rather than reinterment) on the site was in 1817.
Fascinatingly, there's a circular watchtower near the upper entrance of the burial ground, as a defence against graverobbing. From the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries it had a new purpose, as a house, despite only being 5m in diameter. Sounds perfect to me!
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| the watchtower |
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