Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 37 on 20/03/2008.

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The ghosts of Greyfriars

Gary Hayden takes a walk round Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh's old town

On a summer’s day, Greyfriars Kirkyard is a very pleasant spot. It boasts a fine view of nearby Edinburgh Castle; encloses a well-preserved section of the Flodden Wall; and is surrounded by ornate and impressive mausoleums. It is a popular haunt for tourists on the trail of Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal Skye terrier who stood guard over his master John Gray’s grave until he himself died, and office-workers seeking somewhere green and shady to enjoy a packed lunch.

But for those with a penchant for the macabre, the best time to visit Greyfriars is on a wet winter afternoon when the tourists are seeking shelter elsewhere, and the silence is broken only by the drip-drip of water inside the tombs.

In Edinburgh Picturesque Notes, Robert Louis Stevenson writes: “We Scotch stand… highest among nations in the matter of grimly illustrating death,” and adds, “the classic examples of this art are in Greyfriars.” Astroll around the Kirkyard will confirm this. Many of the monuments and mausoleums are engraved with horrid symbols of death and damnation: skeletons and skulls; crossbones and coffins; austere angels blowing judgement-trumpets; and ‘figures rising headless from the grave.’ Even the walls of the kirk are decorated with lurid symbols of mortality and decay.

The higgledy-piggledy old houses of Candlemaker Row border the east side of the churchyard. Many back directly onto Greyfriar’s gloomy mausoleums so that, in Stevenson’s words: “Only a few inches separate the living from the.....

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By Gary Hayden

Section : Scotland Hounts

Page number : 28