When the villagers of Calton started to find it inconvenient to continue burying their dead at the South Leith Parish Church, they decided to petition for their own burial ground. In 1718, the Society of Incorporated Trades of Calton bought a half-acre of land to use as a burial ground. The Society of Incorporated Trades of Calton was founded in 1631, and was granted a charter by the then Lord Balmerino that allowed it to trade within Calton and tax anyone who wished to do so. The Society allowed anyone to be a member as long as they were healthy and exceptional at their trade. It purchased the land from Arthur Elphinstone, the 6th Lord Balmerino and later an officer in the Jacobite Army, for £1,013.
Actual burials ceased in the Old Calton Burial Ground in 1869, but the Society maintained control over it for a few more years. In 1814, a new road was approved and was constructed between 1815 and 1819. The new road was called Waterloo, and it cut through the graveyard. Bodies and stones from the Old Calton Burial Ground were removed, and bones were carefully excavated and wrapped for relocation to the New Calton Burial Ground 0.5km (0.31mi) east of the original burial ground. The New Calton Burial Ground served as an overspill for the older burial ground and, when it was opened in 1820, over 300 bodies had been reburied and several of the substantial stones were re-erected.
Many notable figures are interred at the Calton Burial Grounds. The Old Burial Ground is dominated by a huge obelisk designed by Thomas Hamilton, a Scottish architect who was based in Edinburgh. Hamilton was responsible for designing many of the more prominent buildings in Edinburgh. The obelisk is known as the Martyrs Monument, and was erected in honour of members of the Suffrage movement, Friends of People. Named on the dedication are Thomas Muir, Thomas Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot and Joseph Gerrald. They were charged with writing and publishing pamphlets on parliamentary reform and sedition. They were sentenced to deportation and sent to Australia. Although none of the martyrs were from Calton, it's believed that the obelisk was erected in the Calton Burial Grounds due to its lack of affiliation to any particular church. The architect of the obelisk was interred in a vault with Masonic iconography behind the structure.
Erected at the expense of America was a large statue that serves as a dedication to the Scottish soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. Only one of the soldiers, a William Duffy, is actually buried under the monument. Designed by American sculptor George Edwin Bissell, with stonework by Stewart McGlashan and Son, the monument has several symbolic parts. It has a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the only one in Scotland, and a bronze shield with the American flag. It's wreathed with thistles and cotton, and also features a statue of a black man holding a book, indicative of his freedom and education.
Within the Calton Burial Ground there are many detailed carved headstones. One of the largest and most elaborate, featuring a set of lions rampant on a shield and two carved female figures exposing their breasts and holding a book, belongs to a heelmaker called John Morton, who died in 1728.
Scottish artist Dave Allen, a painter and illustrator of much of Robert Burns' works, was originally buried in Calton in an unmarked grave. He was honoured with a headstone by the Royal Academy in 1874, almost 80 years after his death.
Two famed publishers have their graves at Calton. William Blackwood, founder of Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and publisher of many of Sir Walter Scott's works, was interred in a vault with a decorative iron gate. His publishing rival, Archibald Constable, who had the rights to Encyclopaedia Britannica and also published some of Sir Walter Scott's work, has a monument featuring a bronze bust of his head. Constable's nephew, a lawyer, was buried close to his uncle, and his monument depicts a caterpillar and butterfly and a Greek inscription.
A German knight, Julius Von Yelin, travelled to Scotland to visit Sir Walter Scott but, when he arrived, Scott was unable to see him straight away due to illness. Before they could meet, Von Yelin himself died, so it wasn't until his funeral and burial at Calton that Sir Walter Scott 'met' him.
Another interesting person buried at Calton Burial Ground is Peter Williamson, nicknamed "Indian Peter". Williamson was born in Aberdeen and, at 13, was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He was taken to America, where he escaped his captors and went to live amongst the Native Americans. Eventually, Williamson came back to Scotland and successfully sued the Aberdeen Town Council. He became a rich man, and is remembered for starting Edinburgh's first Penny Post in 1773. He has an unmarked grave near the Martyrs Monument.
The famed Stevenson family of lighthouse architects - who were also the family of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson - are all buried in the New Calton Burial Ground.
The Old and New Calton Burial Grounds have had strange occurrences. Historian and philosopher David Hume was interred in a large cylindrical monument designed by Robert Adam. Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect and interior designer who also made furniture. In his will, Hume requested that his monument only have his name, birth and death recorded on it. Due to his professed atheism, Hume's monument had to be guarded for eight days after his burial. It was thought by some that Hume had made a Faustian pact with the devil, and his friends watched his grave, burning candles and firing pistols to ward off any evil.
William Burke and William Hare, the notorious Edinburgh body snatchers or 'resurrection men', were known to steal bodies from the Calton Burial Ground for use by doctors for research. They particularly worked for a Doctor Robert Knox. They eventually tired of the efforts involved in body snatching, and instead started murdering people to keep up with the demands of Dr Knox. A large watch tower was built in the upper corner, near the entrance to the New Calton Burial Ground. The tower was used to protect fresh graves from body snatchers. After the 1832 Anatomy Act was legislated, the sale of bodies to medical schools became legal, and the watch tower became largely redundant and was converted to a private residence.
Many tourists have photographed anomalies at the Calton Hill Burial Grounds. These include faces appearing on the monuments, strange flares of light, and spectral-looking figures.
I was amazed by the beautiful monuments in the Calton Hill Burial Ground. It is an interesting place to explore.
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