Robert Burns died on July 21, 1796 at his home in Dumfries. He was only 37 years old but despite his years left a mark like no other poet in the soul of his nation. Consigned to earth, here rests the lifeless clay, Which once a vital spark from heaven inspired! The lamp of genius... Continue Reading →
Funny Scottish Epitaphs: The Surgeon’s Bones
A serious friend my drop a tear On these dear bones and say These once were strong as mine appear, And mine must be as they. Garrel Churchyard, Dumfries, John Henry, Surgeon, 1798 Raymond Lamont-Brown: Scottish Epitaphs. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1990
the failed resurrection of Mother Buchan
Fordyce is beautiful. If you had to paint an idyllic Scottish village, it would look exactly like that: stone houses, winding streets and well-kept gardens. There is nothing here that disturbs the idyll, not even a pub. There used to be a boisterous annual market, but not anymore. A small castle on the corner of... Continue Reading →
leper deaths in Wigtown
The Middle Ages were for many in Scotland a time of poverty and deprivation, a meager diet and dangerous illnesses, low or non-existent sanitary standards, little medical knowledge. Eels were the standard food around Wigtown and the Galloway coast. They were salted and kept in barrels for winter. The poor were the first to catch... Continue Reading →
sin-eatings, dead days, and waulking the dead
The churchyard in Inch in the southwest of Scotland is in no way exraordinary. The parish church austere and grey, the graves ordered and well kept even though the village of Inch doesn't exist anymore. Old funeral customs in Dumfries and Galloway were elaborate and in parts rather strange. One custom, was known as the... Continue Reading →
The Tall Man from Dumfries
Here lies Andrew MacPherson, Who was a peculiar person; He stood six foot two Without his shoe And he was slew, At Waterloo. Raymond Lamont-Brown: Scottish Epitaphs. Chambers; Edinburgh, 1990
Graveyards of Scotland 
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