Edinburgh's graveyards give up their dark and unexpected secrets in new book

Or that the smallest cemetery in the Capital dates back to the time of the plague, while another houses the grave of legendary magician The Great Lafayette. Yet another had a roller-rink built on top of it.

These are just some of the revelations in The Graveyards and Cemeteries of Edinburgh, a new book by Charlotte Golledge, published this month by Amberley Books. Some 15 of the city’s burial grounds feature in her research, each brought to life by intriguing tales drawn from the lives and times of those buried there. As Golledge states in her introduction: ‘Each of Edinburgh’s burial grounds are rich tapestries of stories, of the near and long ago past.’

St Cuthbert’s Kirkyard at the West End is the first to feature in the book. One of the oldest burial sites in the city, the kirkyard was a favourite with 18th century resurrectionists, who would dig up the bodies of the newly interred and sell them to local medical schools - you can still see the watchtower where a look out was kept for the dreaded body snatchers.

At the other end of Princes Street, the Old Calton Burial Ground, on Waterloo Place, holds many a historic memorial but perhaps one of the most eye-catching tomb stones is Captain John Gray’s monument to his parents, which is awash with symbols of mortality - skeletons, skulls, masks and a ship, sails unfurled. It’s chilling.

Buccleuch Parish Chapel Yard, on Chapel Street, meanwhile, is the resting place of the notorious Deacon William Brodie, respectable by day, criminal by night, and the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde. The Chapel Yard also made headlines when, in 1909 when the Southside Roller Skating Academy rented the church hall. Built on top of graves it would become Scotland’s most controversial roller rink. The Scotsman commented at the time: ‘It actually occupies a site under which moulder the bones of previous generations.’

Sciennes House Place is home to the oldest Jewish Cemetery in Edinburgh while laying claim to also being Scotland’s oldest Jewish Cemetery - Glasgow’s Jewish community travelled through to the Capital to bury their dead prior to getting their own resting place.

Elsewhere, amongst the rich and famous East Preston Street Burial Ground is also the resting place of a young fireman named John Paterson who died fighting the Great Fire of the North Bridge Building in 1835. A monument was erected to him by the Fire Insurance Companies of Edinburgh in order to convey the sense of loss felt by those who knew him and to remember a man who did his duty to protect the city and citizens of Edinburgh.

Home of the ghostly Red Lady’s tomb, Warriston Cemetery boasts one of the most unusual features of any city graveyard. Alongside the intricate architecture of its now sealed catacombs, ran a railway line. In 1845 the new Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven railway line was built through the cemetery, the railway bridge being of neo-Tudor design in keeping with its surroundings. The line was closed in the 1950s.

And if you ever wondered how the Red Lady got her name, Mary Ann Robertson was laid to rest in 1858 in a shrine paid for by her grieving father. Built of white marble with a roof of red glass, the statue of a reclining figure on her deathbed basked in a red glow. All that remains today is part of the figure.

Built on the site of what was Dean House, the Dean Cemetery, Dean Path, still retains elements of the long gone mansion. Eleven carved stones have been built into the cemetery’s walls, look out for a fascinating semicircular pediment depicting a shepherd rescuing a ram from wolf.

On Pilrig Street, Rosebank Cemetery has become known as the resting place for many of Edinburgh’s forgotten. It is here you will find memorials to fishermen and captains who were lost at sea and to the 215 soldiers of the I/7th Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots who died in the Quintishill train crash in 1915 - Britain’s worst ever rail disaster.

Heading along the coast, the story of showman and magician The Great Lafayette, alias Sigmund Newberger, has become the stuff of legend. One of the highest paid performers of his day, he earned £44,000 a year, the equivalent of £3.5 million today, he burned to death at the Empire Theatre (now the Festival theatre) in 1911. Perhaps ironically, he was then cremated and his urn taken through the streets of the city in his silver Mercedes. Some 25,000 people are reported to have lined the route as his funeral procession made its way to Piershill Cemetery, Portobello Road, where his remains were buried alongside his pet dog Beauty, a gift from Harry Houdini, the pet had died a few days earlier.

Perhaps the most unusual burial ground in the Capital, however, can be found beside No 1 Chamberlain Road. It dates back to 1645, the year the last and worst outbreak of plague came to town. Here, it is believed that the Laird of Greenhill, John Livingston and his wife Elizabeth Rigg were buried after they succumbing to the Black Death.

One last strange burial noted in the book is that of Frenchman Walter Merlion, the first person to pave the High Street and after whom Marlin’s Wynd was named. He was laid to rest ‘under his work’ at the head of the wynd that carried his name.

These and many more fascinating tales from Edinburgh’s burial grounds can be found in Golledge’s gripping work.

The Graveyards and Cemeteries of Edinburgh, a new book by Charlotte Golledge, published by Amberley, £14.99 www.amberley-books.com/coming-soon/the-graveyards-and-cemeteries-of-edinburgh.html