Calton Hill

Calton Hill is situated in central Edinburgh, and was originally referred to as Cragingalt.  The hill, valley and lowland between it and Greenside were granted to Edinburgh by James II in 1456.  The land was to be used as a place where tournaments, sports and other war-like deeds could be practised.  Becoming known as Caldtoun, the anglicised name being Cold Town, by 1725 the area was referred to as Calton and Calton Hill. 

The first substantial development on Calton Hill was the Old Calton Hill Burial Ground, located on the south-western side of the hill.  Making up three sides of Calton Hill are the elegant thoroughfare made up of Royal Terrace, Calton Terrace and Regent Terrace.  Designed by famous Scottish architect William Henry Playfair, the largest townhouse is on Royal Terrace.  Most of the properties on the terraces are houses, but there are some hotels.  Gardens on the summit of the hill are privately cared for by a Residents' Association. 

On the steep southern side of the hill is the Scottish Government based in St Andrews House, which had been built in place of the notorious Calton Hill Prison, later known as Saughton Prison.  The ornate Regent Bridge, constructed by famed author Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather, Robert Stevenson, traverses a deep gorge connecting Calton Hill to Princes Street. 

Several famous monuments adorn Calton Hill.  Built between 1807 and 1815, a commemorative monument was constructed in honour of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson.  1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke Bronte, was a renowned tactician, which resulted in him winning many naval battles.  The Calton Hill Nelson Monument was erected to specifically celebrate Nelson's victory against the French and Spanish in the Battle of Trafalgar, a battle in which Nelson lost his life.  In 1853, a time ball was added to the monument to signal time to ships in Leith Harbour. 

The Dugald Stewart Monument was built as a memorial to the Scottish philosopher, Dugald Stewart, who held the seat of Moral Philosopher until his death.  Designed by architect William Henry Playfair, the monument is modelled on the Choragic Monument Of Lysicrates in Athens.  Also designed by Playfair is the City Observatory.  Inspired by the Greek Temple of the Four Winds, it was built in 1818.  It is enclosed in a boundary wall, and the oldest part of the structure is the Gothic tower also known as Observatory House.  The first Astronomer Royal was Professor Thomas Henderson, who took the position in 1834.

Built in the Old Calton Burial Ground is the 90ft (27m) obelisk erected to commemorate five political reformists and referred to as the Political Martyr's Monument.  The 19th-Century Neoclassical building referred to as the Old Royal High School was built on Calton Hill to serve as Edinburgh's first Royal High School.  Modelled on Hephalsteion of Athens, the building was designed by architect Thomas Hamilton. 

Designed by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair, the National Monument is modelled on the Parthenon in Athens.  Erected in honour of Scottish soldiers and sailors who died in the Napoleonic Wars, building on the monument began in 1826.  Lack of funding resulted in the monument not being finished, the unfinished building being called many names, including Edinburgh's Folly.

In 1824, the sculptor John Flaxman was commissioned to create a lifesize statue of the poet Robert Burns.  The sculptor based his work on a painting of the poet by Alexander Nasmyth.  The poet was carved holding a bunch of daisies with a bonnet and thistle at his feet.  The monument in which the statue was placed on Calton Hill was designed by Thomas Hamilton.  The statue of Burns was removed from its monument due to it being damaged by the local gasworks.  It is not Robert Burns' only connection with Calton Hill.  On the west side of the hill is a street called Calton Hill.  A woman called Agnes Maclehose lived on the street.  Burns had an unconsummated affair with the married woman, the two of them corresponding using the pseudonyms Clarinda and Sylvander.  Between 1787 and 1788, Burns sent many verses to Agnes.  He based his famous song, "Ae Fond Kiss", written in 1791, on her. 

Rock House, situated on the southern-western entrance to the hill, was the home of Robert Adamson who, with his partner David Octavius Hill, were pioneers of the calotype photographic process in Scotland.  Many photographs were taken by them in the garden and the house on Calton Hill. 

There is much folklore surrounding Calton Hill suggesting it had played a key role in Pagan rituals.  Beltane is still celebrated on the hill.  The Beltane Fire Festival is held on the 30th of April every year. 

It is believed that Calton Hill is a gateway to the Fairy Kingdom.  There is a story surrounding a boy that lived in the port town of Leith.  It is said that, each week, he made his way to Calton Hill, and entered the hill through huge gates only visible to those with the second sight, in this case a gift bestowed on the boy by the Fairies.  He would play the drum for the fairy folk.  He became known as the Fairy Boy.

Calton Hill was also used to burn witches.  The beautiful Lady Glamis was publicly burned for witchcraft on Calton Hill. 

It's quite a trek up the side of Calton Hill, passing beautiful buildings and the graveyard.  The view at the top of the hill is magnificent.  The monuments and buildings at the summit are quite an interesting mix of architecture that seem exotic and strange on this beautiful hill in the middle of Edinburgh.

Old and New Calton Hill Burial Grounds

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. 

St Andrew's Cathedral

The construction of St Andrew's Cathedral began in 1158.  The Cathedral took over a century to build, and was the largest Cathedral in Scotland.  St Andrew's Cathedral was constructed on the site of St Regulus (St Rule) Church, which was built to house the relics of St Andrew in 1070, and the even older religious site on the seaward side of the Cathedral, Church of St Mary of the Rock.

Originally created to help accommodate more people than the older Church of St Regulus (St Rule) on the site, St Andrew's Cathedral was consecrated during the reign of Robert I, King of The Scots, on July 5th, 1318, by Bishop Wardlaw. 

The Cathedral served a community of Augustinian Canons.  It was used for over three hundred years by the Augustines.  The west end of the Cathedral was destroyed in a storm and then subsequently repaired in the years between 1272 and 1279.  When intact, the Cathedral comprised of six turrets and a central tower. 

In 1378, the Cathedral was damaged by a fire.  Restoration and further embellishment of the structure were eventually completed in 1440.

In 1559, during the Scottish Reformation, a time when Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a mostly Calvanist kirk with a strong Presbyterian influence, the Cathedral was ransacked.  The building was stripped of its altars and images.  By 1561, it had been totally abandoned and left to ruin. 

At the end of the 16th century, the central tower collapsed, bringing with it the north wall of the Cathedral.  Large parts of the ruined Cathedral were taken away to be used as building materials at other sites.  Nothing was done to preserve what was left of the Cathedral until 1826.

Nowadays, a visitor to St Andrew's Cathedral can see the west door, sections of the south aisle, the east wall, and a single tower of the west front.  The Cathedral has a huge perimeter wall, and the tower of St Regulus (St Rule) still stands.  A few turrets, gables and sections of the chapter house remain, as does the ancient graveyard.   

St Andrew's Cathedral is supposedly haunted by several different spectres.  A ghostly monk is said to wander around the magnificent tower of St Regulus (St Rules) Church.  He has been known to offer assistance to tourists.  On one occasion, a visitor to the ruins claims to have been asked by the ghostly monk if he required assistance with the stairs of the tower.  The monk is believed to be a former Prior of St Andrew's, Robert de Montrose, who climbed the tower stairs to enjoy the view at night.  He apparently was forced to discipline one of his charges.  This disgruntled monk supposedly followed Montrose up the tower and stabbed him in the back with a dagger.  He then hurled Montrose to the ground.  The murdered Prior has also been seen falling from the tower by tourists in a macabre re-enactment of his death.  

Another famous ghost is the veiled nun.  Legend has it that she was very beautiful and rich, and had turned down many suitors.  When one suitor caught her attentions, she agreed to marry him.  As wedding preparations were being made, the woman changed her mind.  She decided, instead, to enter a nunnery.  When her fiancé heard the news he rushed to St Andrew's.  When he arrived, however, she had already cut off her eyelids, slit both her nostrils, cut off her lips and branded both her cheeks.  Horrified, her fiancé returned home and committed suicide.  The young woman died a few weeks later.  Since this event, people have claimed to see the veiled figure.

A woman in white has been observed wandering the grounds of the Cathedral.  She walks amongst the ancient graves and the tower.  The sightings of this female apparition were recorded as early as the 1800s.  She seemingly has long black hair, and some people have reported seeing her carrying a book in her hand.  In the 1860s, a group of stonemasons working on the Cathedral reportedly broke a wall and saw into a crypt.  Amongst the bodies within the crypt was a well-preserved female with long dark hair, wearing a white dress and white gloves.

I have fond memories of St Andrew's Cathedral.  It was a peaceful place, with ancient graves and a looming tower.  You walk quietly amongst the ruins of gothic gables and crumbling walls, all the while aware that it was once an ancient place of something mystical and profound.