Old Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh
Visited June 2017
The Old Calton Burial Ground stands above Princes Street and Waverly Station in Edinburgh, close to New Calton Burial Ground.
It opened in 1718, and has some wonderful old monuments in it. Burials stopped in the late 1860s, so everything there is of a fair age. As well as the main burial ground, there's also a small section across Waterloo Place, split off when Waterloo Place was constructed in 1819; the burials which were displaced were reburied in the New Calton burial ground.
Important monuments inlcude the Martyr's Monument, a large obelisk built in 1844 as a memorial to five men, known as the Chartist Martyrs, who were transported to Australian in 1794 for sedition. Notably, there is also an obelisk in their memory in Nunhead Cemetery, South London. There's also a memorial to Scottish-American Soldiers, dedicated in 1893 and the only monument to the American Civil War outside the USA, and the first statue of an American President erected outside the USA.
There are also a number of splendid old tombs of various sizes and styles of the 18th and 19th centuries, and not too many people around; this place is definitely well worth a visit if you're in Edinburgh and can face the short walk up the hill!
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| Martyr's Monument to the right |
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| Scottish-American Soldiers Monument |
