Description

Laid out 1820. L-plan burial ground. Main entrance on East Preston Street; original cast-iron carriage gates and tall droved ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps; pedestrian gateway and cast-iron gate adjoining to right. High surrounding rubble walls; railings to NE corner with East Preston Street and Dalkeith Road;

Wall monuments and free-standing stones, predominantly Greek Revival; Tudor style burial enclosures to external walls; decorative enclosures to N of watchtower containing graves of John Scott (died 1829) and Hugh Handyside (died 1833); iron railing mortsafe enclosure to S wall to grave of Rev. William Limont (died 1833).

WATCH TOWER: dated 1820; 2-stage, circular-plan, corbelled and castellated watchtower with external staircase set in re-entrant angle of boundary walls; doorway at ground; 2 single windows and further doorway at 1st floor.

Statement of Interest

Opened on 4 December 1820 as an extension to Buccleuch burial ground which had become overcrowded. The high walls and watchtower (which housed an armed guard) were considered essential precautions against the resurrectionists. Notable internments; many leading Edinburgh clergymen and professionals along with Jean Lorimer ('Chloris'), subject of several of Burns' songs.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• East Preston Street Burial Ground at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17791460

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]