Greyfriars
Although having visited countless times, the opportunity of joining a free tour of Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh came into my inbox, so I joined up and went along on what turned out to be a cracking day weather wise. As the tour was scheduled for mid-afternoon, I travelled in early and spent time reading at the Futures Institute, then visited the Portrait Gallery. From there I made a quick stop at The New Town Church. Again, I’ve passed this many times but never went in for a look. This was followed by an hour at the National Gallery then the museum briefly before heading off to Greyfriars. Quite a busy day. I’m hoping to make some notes about these visits, as they are starting to pile up. During a recent trip to Glasgow, I again visited Kelvingrove Museum to take in the French Impressionists, then the Royal Infirmary Museum, Glasgow Cathedral, St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art and then the Necropolis. I’ve also been to Blackness Castle this month and I haven’t started to blog about some of the sites I saw in a recent trip to Italy. Hopefully, I will be able to cover these off during the coming months.
Greyfriars is the third most visited tourist attraction in Scotland, after the Castle and the Museum. However, I head on the tour that it only receives around seventeen thousand a year in funding which pays for cutting the grass. In contrast, the Castle and the Museum receive millions of pounds. Yet the historical significance of this site and what it can tell us about how our ancestors lived is quite astonishing. This tour could only cover the background to a couple of the gravestones after a general overview of how the place came to be. The kirkyard was founded in 1562. Prior to that St Giles’ Kirkyard had been used, but Greyfriars was chosen as they were becoming short of space at St Giles and being further from the centre of town, it would help with the stench in the summer heat. We were given some of the background to the Covenantors at the Martyr’s Monument, which commemorates executed Covenanters. Also highlighted was the trend towards more extravagant and elaborate stonework and the Flodden wall being used to erect the stonework surrounding the tombs. Some of these examples are huge, and the detail of the images carved on the stones were explained along with the backstory of who was buried there and why these monuments were erected in their honour. I came away with a clearer understanding of the thought that went into the detail and the reasons why, given the context of society at the time. It’s necessary to view these graves from the perspective of that time and not from the standpoint of our modern values as some of the tales were quite surprising. (I appreciate the lack of detail here, but I wasn’t making notes and don’t wish to state something that is inaccurate. Details can easily be searched for online if interested).
I would do this tour again, given the amount of information that was provided by an excellent and knowledgeable guide. There is so much to take in and this tour has given me a new way of viewing the site. It was well worth taking the time to do so.