Our sons they sleep down in this grave, We will not weep to wake them; We will wait till death do come, And we will overtake them. Kelton graveyard Raymond Lamont-Brown: Scottish Epitaphs. Chambers, Edinburgh,1990
The Fife Adventurers
Towards the end of the 16th century, the Isle of Lewis was a wild, unruly, unhealthy and recalcitrant place. At least according to its King, James VI. It might have been quite a few of these things but educating his people was not what was really on the King’s mind when he took measures to... Continue Reading →
cursed spirits
In Fodderty people have lived since the earliest times. The remains of a Pictish hill-fort on a ridge next to the graveyard are still visible for those who are energetic enough to climb the crag called Knock Farrill. Nothing much is left to be seen but remains of walls and ditches, there definitely were look-out... Continue Reading →
guardian of the realm
In days without a king or during a royal minority, a guardian was elected to lead nobles and realm. David II was born in 1329, the year his father Robert I died. A hero father who cast a long shadow. David was too young to rule and it proved too dangerous for him to remain... Continue Reading →
vast nothingness
Elphin burial ground, Sutherland This is probably one of the tiniest burial grounds in Scotland. Elphin, a small crofting community in Sutherland. It is so small and apparently so insignificant, that even Elphin’s Wikipedia entry does not count much more than that the village phone and post box to its attractions. In the vast and... Continue Reading →
Jacobite hideout
Mill Street Old Burial Ground, Ullapool The burial ground in Ullapool’s Mill Street is called old but it is in fact fairly new. Ullapool is fairly new, it was designed and constructed in the late 18th century. This is a burial ground and not a graveyard or kirkyard, where the burial place is part of... Continue Reading →
in the supermarket’s car park
Saint Clement's burial ground, Dingwall This place feels ancient and somehow out of time with the car park and the neon signs of a big supermarket surrounding it. The church is 19th century but this has been a place of worship for much longer. The dead have been buried here for centuries as is indicated... Continue Reading →
Jacobite weapons and a vanished island
Dunlichity is a Parish church. There was an older building dating back to the 16th century but the faithful have worshipped here for much longer. The close-by loch and its fishing right belonged to the church. It is called Loch a’Chlachain, the lake of the church. Very still with a very remote feel to it,... Continue Reading →
executed in the graveyard
In the days after Culloden the roads were full of refugees and the makeshift prisons full of Jacobites. More than three thousand were recorded, not just men, women and children as well. Not all of them had been fighting of course, some had just been a bit too sympathetic with the cause of Charles Edward... Continue Reading →
health and safety
A graveyard is a place of peace, of mourning, and of thought. There are many things to think about on a graveyard: death, life, time; you think of loved ones and of others, of happy moments and of sad ones. But one thing you hardly ever think about is health and safety. Why should you?... Continue Reading →
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