
In Edinburgh, Scotland, five historical burial grounds are scattered around the city’s center, calm amid the surrounding urban storm. Greyfriars Kirkyard, Canongate Kirkyard, St. Cuthberts Kirkyard, Old Calton Burial Ground, and New Calton Burial Ground form a collection of graveyards that provide a window into the history, culture, and society of Scotland from the early 17th to late 19th century. Among the weathered, decaying headstones of lawyers, poets, smiths, tailors, philosophers, and others that formed the fabric of Edinburgh’s society, histories and legacies weave stories of the transition of Edinburgh from medieval town to Enlightenment city to the “second city of the Empire.” Economist Adam Smith, poet Robert Fergusson, inventor Robert Stevenson, and philosopher David Hume rest among the city’s departed, testament to Edinburgh’s cultural and academic transformations.
Years of exposure to the elements, vandalism, and neglect have led to deterioration throughout the five graveyards. Headstones that have been removed or become dislodged from the ground lie flat, decaying and eroding with each passing year. Paths have become overgrown, dissuading visitors from entering the grounds that evoke such significant memories of the history and importance of Edinburgh in the development of the country and Europe as a whole.
World Monuments Fund 2010 Watch List
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