Saturday September 26th and Sunday September 27th are our annual doors open days at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. The Covenanters’ Prison area (which is normally closed to the general public) will be open from 10am to 4pm on these days.
Greyfriars has so much Covenanter history, with many key Covenanter events of the 17th century happening here and many key Covenanter people buried here. The National Covenant was first signed here in 1638, the men who wrote it (Archibald Johnston and Alexander Henderson) are buried here, the Covenanters’ Prison was where 1,200 combatants from the Battle of Bothwell Bridge were held in 1679 and the Martyrs Monument to the men and women who suffered between 1661 and 1688 stands here, in front of the place where many of those executed in Edinburgh are buried. And of course Bluidy Mackenzies tomb is here too.
Come along between 10am and 4pm on the 26th or 27th, the visit is entirely free of charge. We will be available to answer questions about the Kirkyard. Look for us in our green tabards, we love to talk about this place!
The recent drought is revealing where the walls around the burial lairs used to be. As the grass dehydrates and the ground shrinks back, the areas with shallow soil above buried hidden old stone walls brown off earlier than the rest of the grass. This reveals the ghosts of the old walls. Once the rain returns the grass will green, the earth will swell and these marks will disappear again, until the next drought.
A few weeks ago, Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard trustees Chris Cooper (Treasurer) and Mark Hatton (Chair) gave two fascinating talks at an evening lecture put on by Edinburgh World Heritage. Chris shed further light on the man (and woman!) behind the enigmatic Bayne monument while Mark made a compelling case for why the George Heriot marker can be considered a trendsetter for monument designs in the years that followed. Both talks can now be viewed on YouTube.
The cracks that were threatening the integrity and symbolism of the Bannatyne Monument have been repaired. Nic Boyes, a highly skilled and experienced stone conservator, set about the task by injecting a paraloid in to the cracks, then applying resin. This will hopefully ensure that this wondrous example of 17th century symbolism is preserved for future generations to admire and marvel at.
Stone Conservation Students watched on to learn the techniques being used. Mark & Kev from the Edinburgh Bereavement Services erected the platform and took the opportunity to remove the buddleia and privet that was growing on the monument. Thanks to Susan at Edinburgh World Heritage for organising and funding the conservation work. It is fantastic to see this monument cherished like this.
Before.After.Work in progress.Stone Conservation Students from Edinburgh University watching and learning the specialist techniques required for a project of this nature.Mark & Kev erected and dismantled the platform.The vegetation that had been growing (bottom left) was cut back, giving us an unobstructed view of the top section of the monument.A view of the image on the monument that I believe depicts Thomas Bannatyne looking out from a burial shroud. This had been obscured by vegetation but is now visible. Need to find a way to treat that root stock to prevent regrowth.
So today we shifted a huge amount of Buddleia from the tops of the west walls around the Kirkyard. The priority was to remove the flower heads before they set seed and further spread this very invasive plant into every nook & cranny. Whilst Buddleia might look pretty, it causes a lot of damage to the stonework and obscures the view of the monuments. We find that extendable loppers are a safe and effective way to cut back the buddleia without the danger of using chemicals, the risk of using ladders or the cost of using a cherry picker. It isn’t perfect, but it certainly is better than letting the buddleia take over. Thanks to Paul, Paul, Paul and Tom for putting in a hell of a shift today.
Snipping away at this very determined and fast growing plant.One clump of buddleia pushing the stonework apart before we set about it.30 minutes later, this buddleia is down and bagged, ready to be loaded on to the trailer and taken off site.A trailer full of buddleia from all around the Kirkyard. Many dumpy bag loads each weighing 10 stone or more.
One of the enduring mysteries of Greyfriars Kirkyard is we still don’t know where the original Grey Friars buildings were. When the Grey Friars established a Friary in Edinburgh in the early 15th century James I granted them the land that now forms the Kirkyard. Over the years they were based in Edinburgh they will have developed a friary church, a cloister, refectory, and dormitory. This complex would not necessarily have been particularly large, as there were likely no more than a couple of dozen Friars based here. The rest of their land was used for growing food and herbs used to feed the hungry and treat the sick of Edinburgh. But during the Reformation the Friars were banished and their buildings demolished. No one today knows what buildings they had or precisely where they were. Most historians appear to have concluded that these buildings were in the North end of the current burial ground, on the edge of the Grassmarket. But others (me included) speculate that Greyfriars Kirk built between 1610 & 1620 was founded on the footprint of the old Friary, incorporating where convenient the stonework of the much earlier buildings.
There are several things that corroborate this theory. Firstly this is a flat section of ground, that sits in the middle of the land, so a better position to locate the Friary than on the slope near the Grassmarket. Secondly if we look closely we can see evidence of an older building lying underneath the current Kirk. These photos illustrate where the walls, pillars and buttressing of the Kirk appear to have been built off earlier foundations.
Thanks to Jamie Moffat at the Kirk for identifying and allowing access to these old areas of stonework.
One of the original buttresses stands on top of stonework that looks like an earlier structure, incorporating a rounded profile. Are these stones remnants of the original Friary?In the South East corner of the Kirk, hidden by boxing in, we can see the remains of a structure that is much wider than the Kirk’s walls that have been built on top. Are these the remains of the earlier Friary building?Some of the original internal pillars of the Kirk have been built on bases that don’t match the shape of the pillar. Were these bases part of the earlier Friary building?
In time for the James Hutton memorial concert in Greyfriars Kirk on Saturday, the Hutton lair in the Covenanters has had a makeover. The drain was taken out by Edinburgh University, Edinburgh Bereavement Services then made good the wall, we thoroughly weeded the lair and today 2 tons of nice new gravel was put in and levelled out. It now looks fly !
That drain was washing the gravel away.The drain was removed by Edinburgh University.Edinburgh Bereavement Services made good the wall.And today 2 tons of new gravel has been applied to make the lair look its best.
There is one particularly gruesome and disconcerting tomb in Greyfriars Kirkyard, which is on the West Wall. This is the family tomb for the Chiesley’s. It features a spatchcocked skeleton, wearing a crown whilst floating in a skull soup, looking as if it has just given birth to a basketball. One may well ask “why” would the Chiesley Family choose such imagery for their family memorial. Well this is a rather “colourful” family, which had some rather unusual lifestyles and stories. Let’s just consider three members of this family, Robert Chiesley, his brother John and John’s daughter, Rachel.
Robert Chiesley was a successful Merchant, who lost a fortune in the Darien Scheme and then lost his mind, ending his days as a resident in Bedlam, just a few yards from Greyfriars Kirkyard.
John Chiesley abandoned his wife after they had 10 children together. When Judge Lockhart ordered John to pay alimony to his wife he was so offended that he followed the Judge home and shot him dead in the street. He never denied the Murder, simply saying he was judging the Judge for his outrageous verdict. John was tortured, then taken to the gallows, where his right hand was cut off and he was then hung in chains with his gun tied around his neck. Ever since his ghost has been named Johnny One Arm.
But it was John’s Daughter, Rachel, who perhaps had the maddest life. Rachel was only ten years old when her Father was executed and she grew up to be quite a “wild lady”. It is said that she fell pregnant by James Erskine, aka Lord Grange, then forced him to marry her by holding a gun to his head. She went on to have 9 children with Erskine.
When she discovered he had a mistress she variously threatened to commit suicide, or to run naked through the streets of Edinburgh, or to expose Erskine for his Jacobite sympathies, something that could have got him in to a heap of trouble. So Erskine arranged for Rachel to be kidnapped. He made up a story that she had died and he arranged a funeral at Greyfriars to prove it. Meanwhile Rachel was taken to a tiny, barely habited island off North Uist called Husker, where she lived in very basic conditions for two years, before being moved to a tiny stone hut on St Kilda (called a Cleit) where she was held in even worse conditions for 6 years. She wrote that “I was in great miserie in the Husker but I’m ten times worse and worse here”.
At the age of 61 rumours that she was being held on St Kilda caused a rescue party to set sail to find her, but she had been moved, eventually ending up on Skye. She was initially housed in a cave, before a humble cottage became her secret home for the final few years of her life. Initially she was buried under the cover of darkness at Waternish. When her existence and death became known, another well attended funeral was held for her, in which the coffin was apparently filled with stones. Her story became very popular and features in many songs, poems, novels and even a play.
So next time you are in Greyfriars Kirkyard, take a look at the gruesome Chiesley Tomb and reflect on what a Mad, Bad, Dangerous & Tormented family they were.
A talk by Chris Cooper on the The John Bayne of Pitcairlie Mausoleum, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Focusing on the lives and legacies of John Bayne and Eupham Aikman.
This talk was given on 18th April 2026 as part of the Legacies in Stone community heritage project. Brought to you by Edinburgh World Heritage, the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard, and the City of Edinburgh Council as part of the Legacies in Stone project. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.
To view this talk on our YouTube channel please Click Here
As the 300th anniversary of the birth of James Hutton approaches (3rd June) we are getting more geologists wanting to visit his memorial. The respect and affection these visitors have for James Hutton serves to remind us just how great an impact this man had and continues to have on people who understand his genius, have studied his work and followed in his footsteps by becoming geologists.
Every one of the people buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard have individual stories, deserve to be remembered and respected for the lives they lived. But very few still command the esteem and reverence of James Hutton.
A Group from the Geological Society of America in Edinburgh this week to celebrate James Hutton’s anniversary’s
An American Couple who have long admired James Hutton and flew in to Edinburgh so they could lay a wreath at his grave.
