How a Graveyard became a carpark- Edinburgh

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:07][music] >> Hello. How are you? Hope you're having a healthy and well out there.

[00:00:13]Um today we are going to talk about another lost graveyard right here on the Royal Mile. And apparently one that was not very nice. So, I'll just show you where we are. Right in the heart of the Royal Mile right now. We are starting to get busier as we head towards the summer. Still very comfortable, very nice, but still getting busier.

[00:00:34]There's St. Giles right there. And we are going kind of behind it. Kind of behind it. So, let's head right.

[00:00:41]This is where we're going. So, this is the Market Cross right here.

[00:00:45]Just in case you don't know, this is um gives it the city of Edinburgh the royal borough kind of name and um allows it to hold markets and collect taxes and official proclamations and stuff like that. But actually, we're going behind here.

[00:01:05]So, St. Giles Cathedral has been a cathedral for a long long long long long long time. In fact, its origins date back to the 11th century. That's a long time ago.

[00:01:15]That's a long time ago. That's like 900 years.

[00:01:18]It obviously was the church, the main religious site here in Edinburgh.

[00:01:24]And as most churches, they had graveyards. And they had graveyards right beside them.

[00:01:30]And this, for the most part, was part of it, but I think that section we just walked was part of the graveyard as well. And possibly in front as well. I can't confirm nor deny that, but definitely this section right here.

[00:01:43]So, we're essentially standing in a graveyard right now.

[00:01:46]Doesn't look it, I know, but we are. Uh and I say we are is because the chances that there are still graves underneath is pretty guaranteed. Pretty guaranteed. I would say about 100% roughly. So, So, yeah, this was a graveyard from um about >> [sighs] >> the 12th century to about uh 1500s.

[00:02:09]Roughly the 1500s. So, let's say a good 400 years of burials in here. And this was the main the only the main sort of graveyard for the whole Edinburgh at the time. The Edinburgh wasn't big. Remember, it went from uh Edinburgh Castle to down to the World's End pub. So, it wasn't even It was just over half a mile big.

[00:02:29]But still, if this is all you've got to bury people in for 400 years that that's a lot of burials. So, let's just give you a full view of the whole thing. I go over to that this the nice corner over here where we can get a proper look. Like I said, probably some burials behind as well.

[00:02:49]I'm not saying it was just a section by and I think some excavation work showed that there was burials around about there as well.

[00:02:56]However, you know, that's it. That's it. However, I'm not saying the wall was there. You know, I I don't think the wall stopped exactly where the building started. I don't know how far back it went.

[00:03:09]>> [sighs] >> But we do almost not after not long start to go downhill.

[00:03:14]You know, remember there's bridges hidden and things here and stuff. So, this is flat now, but it wouldn't have been.

[00:03:21]It would have covered off fairly soon after the point of the buildings are.

[00:03:25]No. So, it's not going to be that much bigger than this space, I wouldn't imagine. I don't know. I wasn't there. But I wouldn't imagine. No. Around about Around about the 1500s, this was getting bad.

[00:03:36]This was getting really bad. They were running out places to bury people.

[00:03:42]People were being buried on top of people on top of people on top of people.

[00:03:46]Um and it was just getting worse and worse and well it was it was it was vile.

[00:03:51]It was vile. Edinburgh wasn't quite at the point where it was expanding.

[00:03:55]>> [sighs] >> You know, the new town hadn't started yet, but everything was going upwards instead of outwards. Remember the old tenement buildings in Edinburgh are considered as some of the first skyscrapers in the world. Nowadays, we look at the buildings, let's look there's 1 2 3 4, we'll say about five stories there.

[00:04:12]>> [snorts] >> There's some that are about six, seven, I think. I think Gladstone's Land might be six or seven, I'm not sure.

[00:04:19]Maybe not quite, I think this would be five for it now. Anyway, some of the buildings at the time were reported to go up to 10 or 11 stories high.

[00:04:28]Because you couldn't build out. We were walled in. You could only build up. So, that's what we did. So, the ground few floors, couple of floors would be stone, and then you would add above that with wood.

[00:04:39]And you would just keep building up, and it was packed. It was packed. So, the the population kept growing, the buildings kept going upwards, but the graveyard stayed the same size, and everyone kept going in it.

[00:04:49]So, yeah, eventually, the people were petitioning the city saying, "This is awful. This is just awful." They were worried about the smell. Obviously, they didn't know how diseases traveled. They thought disease traveled by just smell alone.

[00:05:02]>> [snorts] >> But, the smell of this was vile. You know, it's reported as being petulant, just awful, just absolutely awful. So, they were allowed a new graveyard. Mary Queen of Scots granted them land.

[00:05:16]Actually, she granted them land, which is Greyfriars Kirkyard. Sound familiar?

[00:05:23]So, just uh that way. Just that way.

[00:05:27]Um that became the new graveyard for the city. Obviously, there's a few more started, but that became the next graveyard after this one.

[00:05:37]Eventually, you know, when the city was expanding, this uh they did move some graves, as they always tend to do. They moved some graves, not all the graves.

[00:05:47]Some of them have been there for 400 years. They're not going to move all the graves. Um the poor probably didn't get moved. The rich probably did. And some of them were in unmarked graves as well.

[00:05:56]However, one of the last people to be buried here was John Knox, leader of the Reformation. He was allowed to be buried here. Here they made it a special point of burying him here, even though at that point they were starting to move things.

[00:06:09]Um and the new graveyard had started.

[00:06:12]But he had preached here.

[00:06:14]And he was leader of the Reformation. He had turned Scotland from a Catholic nation to a Protestant nation. So he had preached here.

[00:06:20]And he's still buried here.

[00:06:23]Where exactly?

[00:06:25]We don't know.

[00:06:26]They know roughly.

[00:06:28]But this is a car park.

[00:06:32]So he's buried in a car park space.

[00:06:34]Car park space 23, to be precise.

[00:06:37]Where these people, right there, are looking at right now.

[00:06:42]And it's quite a space to be buried in.

[00:06:44]Look at that. It's a beautiful cathedral.

[00:06:47]And not technically a cathedral, because it's a Protestant church. Presbyterian.

[00:06:51]So they don't have cathedrals. But it has been a cathedral twice in its life, and it's kind of honorarily kept the title. Technically, it's called the High Kirk of Scotland.

[00:07:03]Um and St. Giles, the title of St. Giles was given to it uh by David the First.

[00:07:09]He was the one that founded the church on the site. He was also one that founded the abbey down at Holyrood Abbey.

[00:07:15]Um he's one [clears throat] he's the one that really created Edinburgh that we know today, or started to create the Edinburgh we know today. That's where we can trace the origins of it from, to him.

[00:07:25]There was people living here before, but it definitely wasn't a city, and it definitely wasn't getting the prestige.

[00:07:31]Um but yeah. Here we go.

[00:07:36]Love the history for you there. Oh, they're moving. We'll go We'll go and have a quick look before we finish up.

[00:07:40]Okay, so here we go.

[00:07:42]Parking space 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. I'm sure this person has parked here deliberately. Here we go.

[00:07:48]Parking space 23.

[00:07:50]The above stone marks the approximate site of the burial in St. Giles' graveyard of John Knox, the great Scottish divine who died in 24th of November, 1572.

[00:08:05]But, approximate.

[00:08:06]When they say approximate, it could be anywhere in here.

[00:08:13]Anywhere.

[00:08:15]So, there you go. Hope you've enjoyed that. Little bit of history, little bit of vile history of graveyards and stuff again, but hey, it's interesting, isn't it? Nice to have you here.

[00:08:23]You can see this to your friends. This was a This is a car park now. It was It used to be a graveyard, which is very easily understood because church.

[00:08:32]Anyway, hope you've enjoyed that. If you have, leave a like, leave a comment, subscribe if you haven't already. Till next time.

[00:08:38]Bye, humans.

[00:08:41]>> [music]