Greyfriars kirkyard

[Phil]

Greyfriars and the Covenanters.

If you are visiting Edinburgh one place well worth a visit is Greyfriars kirk. Walt Disney immortalised the place with the film about Greyfriars Bobby but apart from this it has a great deal of interesting history.

These burial crypts from the 17th century were built with stone and iron bars like prison cells, not to keep people locked in but to keep people out. The graveyard is in close proximity to Edinburgh’s old Royal Infirmary and Medical School and was vulnerable to “stiffy-lifters” or “resurrectionists” like Burke & Hare who supplied the doctors there with fresh corpses for dissection. Their downfall came about when they decided to short-circuit the dying process and began murdering victims in the lodging house they ran to cater for the trade.


This is another example of the lengths they went to to keep bodies safe.


And if you weren’t quite so well off you had to settle for the economy version like this.


In the Edinburgh museum these miniature coffins are displayed and each contains a clothed carved wooden figure. They were discovered in a cave on the hill above Edinburgh called Arthur’s seat in the 19th century and while their origin is unknown they number the same as the victims of Burke & Hare and may have been connected in some way.


In the second half of the 17th century the graveyard was used as a prison to hold Scottish Covenanters, many of whom were executed in the nearby Grassmarket. The Covenanters were persecuted mercilessly in what were known as the killing times and the crypts here provided a ready source of secure cells to lock them in. The actual cells have been closed off to the public but are similar to the pictures above. Here is a photo of them through a crack in the barrier.



Lastly here is the monument erected in the graveyard to the memory of those who died during this time

[MacWage]

THANK YOU for the photo tour there.

I went by there in my quick tour in 2000. I wanted to see BOTH the church itself (and attended a service there- the pastor's wife is/was from my OWN HOMETOWN- in Georgia,USA) and the prison/graveyard.
My roots (and Church) are descended from the Covenanters, so I have a vested/personal/heritage in what happened there, BOTH the National Covenant itself (their beginning) and the prison (the end of many). I also went to the haymarket. I read a few pages from Jock Purvis' Fair Sunshine, which I thought appropriate.
I'll stop before I tread upon the rules.

Thanks for the photos, it brought back memories.

[cessna152towser]

Excellent pics, Phil. I've passed by Greyfriars cemetery while in Edinburgh but never had the time to call in and look around.

[Arlen]

Beautiful pictures.
I love the old graves and how they represent a completely different view of things.
For instance, the many graves with skeletons and skulls in place of weeping cherubs.

[McMurdo]

Wonderfully moving photos Phil, thanks for the tour.

[McClef]

Great pics Phil, Greyfriars is an interesting place and not just for Bobby!

[GMan]

Awesome photos!

[MacWage]

When I was planning to go, I was told that "Greyfriars separated the Historian from the Tourist." I didn't understand until I SAW it.
I was going because of the history of the CHURCH (all that happened there of SUCH relevance to Scottish history).
Most go there for "Greyfriars Bobby," a dog that was the subject of a Disney movie.

Now, I call it "That Stupid Dog," for all the distractions it causes about the importance of Greyfriars. (No negative thought REALLY intended for the dog, just for the misappropriation of real importance.)

The folks there said I was one of the FEW Americans who came there and didn't CARE about the dog, but came in regards to the National Covenant.

Aside:
One American program mentioned the Covenanters there (a "ghosts of Edinburgh" thing, as I recall). They had them dressed in brown monastic robes . . .

[McClef]

There is a lot about the history of the Kirkyaird in the book about Bobby written by Eleanor Atkinson MacWage, alas it doesn't come out in the movies.

But I must confess I was still emotional when I saw his grave and that of John Gray.

[Archangel]

Actually, I was hoping for a pic of the wee dug (now you've got me doing it). I can remember walking past here almost daily but I can't remember why. Before we get the smart comments, I would have been about 6 years old at the time.