History of Calton Cemetery

posted by Scott Andrew Bird
Tags : locations

Edinburgh�s Calton Hill has had a long and interesting history, and has been home to gaols, a church, a gibbet, an observatory, a school and multiple monuments. And, of course, burial grounds.

This article briefly looks at the history of both the Old Calton Burial Ground and the New Calton Burial Ground (now getting quite long in the tooth itself) nearby.

The story is perhaps best started in 1631, when most of the land around Calton Hill was owned by Lord Balmerino. Balmerino formed the Incorporated Trades of Calton (ITC), which was a union of the various workers and families of the area. This allowed members to trade freely within the area, and tax others who wished to trade there.

In 1718 the ITC purchased half an acre of land at McNeill�s Craigs, enclosed by a stone dyke, for the purpose of establishing a burial ground. This was for burial of ITC members and their families, as well as anyone else agreeable to the union.

The burial ground, and in fact the entire region of Calton Hill, did not become public property until 1725 when the land was purchased from Lord Balermino by the Town Council.

In 1762 the burial ground was extended southward.

The David Hume Mausoleum, designed by Robert Adam, was constructed in 1776. When the philosopher was buried there, his friends kept vigil for 8 nights in order to protect the valuable corpse from being stolen and sold to medical students.

The south perimeter wall of the burial ground was built in 1786.

In 1795 Herman Lyon, a Jewish dentist and chiropodist, petitioned the Town Coucil for a burial place on the Calton Hill for himself and family. Permission was granted, and the family was buried in a cave on the north-western slope of the hill; under what was to become the observatory, many years later. This plot remained undisturbed and forgotten until the Council widened the path at the rear of the observatory in 1994, and the burial chamber was re-discovered. All remains and relics were relocated to the Jewish cemetery in Sciennes Place (formerly Braid Place).

Between 1815 and 1819 several developments were made in order to provide a ceremonial entrance to the Town (most notably employed in 1822 for the visit of King George IV). These included the construction of Waterloo Place, Regent Bridge and Regent Road; dividing the burial ground in two. The disturbed inhabitants were re-interred in the nearby New Calton Burial Ground.

The New Calton Burial Ground was opened for further burials in 1820. It is now looked after, as with Edinburgh Council�s 37 primary burial grounds, by the Mortonhall Crematorium.

The Martyrs� Monument was constructed in 1844 by the Complete Suffrage Association, to a design by Thomas Hamilton; perhaps best known as the architect of the Royal High School a little farther to the east. This obelisk remembers the political martyrs of 1793, who were transported for sedition. Hamilton himself was buried nearby.

Overlooking the Martyrs� Monument is the Emancipation Momument, built in 1893, depicting Abraham Lincoln and an unnamed freed slave. This monument remembers the Scottish soldiers who fought in the American Civil War (1861-1865), and was the first statue of Lincoln created for use outside the United States.