Falkland Old Cemetery
| Building summary | |
|---|---|
 The gates
| |
| Name | Falkland Old Cemetery |
| Address | High Street West |
| Postcode | |
| Other names | Burying ground |
| Old Burial Ground | |
| Kirkyard[1] | |
| Date | 17th century |
| See map | Map T (18) |
| Map D (60) | |
| OS grid ref | NO 25079 07320 |
| Latitude & longitude | 56°15′09″N 3°12′39″W |
| what3words | ///stags.tall.newspaper |
| HES listing details[2] | |
| Category | C |
| Reference / Date | LB31290 / 01/12/1971 |
| Address/Site Name | Graveyard High Street West Port |
| Description:
Square gatepiers with moulded caps circa 1840: rubble walled enclosure burials from 1670; a few stones 18th century onwards. | |
Falkland Old Cemetery is a cemetery in Falkland, with the entrance in High Street West, but extending to the walls along Back Dykes. It is no longer used for burials following the opening of the new Falkland Cemetery on Newton Road. It contains sthe burial aisle of the Johnston (or Johnstone) family of Lathrisk.
Further references
"I had a call the other day from the Rev. Mr Johnston, the Parish Minister, and Mr Alex Bonthrone, one of the heritors. They explained that there had been a complaint as to the untidy condition of the Burying Ground, situated you will recollect, on the south side of the main road in the town leading to the approach gates, and that the minister, who explained that the grass was high, proposed to have it cut, they further explained however that the tenant of the property on the west side of the entrance gate to the Burying Ground, belonging to Falkland Estate and tenanted by Mrs George Ramsay, had a hole in the garden wall through which a large number of hens kept by her passed into the Burying Ground, and they wished this hole shut up. They further, I gathered, wished a gate which leads from the inside of the Burying Ground entrance to the garden of the property shut or secured."[3]
"George Johnston (died 1900) had built up the Lathrisk Estate, and was rumoured, probably without much foundation, to be an eccentric recluse. His ancestors are buried in the Johnston family enclosure in the old burying ground in Falkland, and he himself is commemorated on the stone he erected there."[4]
"On the left just short of an old cottage with tiny windows an iron gate is the entrance to Falkland's Old Burial Ground. it was in use for some two centuries from about 1670. Its gravestones, although many are broken and removed from their proper locations, still have decipheral inscriptions and could yet be immensely useful to a local historian. Emilia Geddie's tombstone is on the East Wall.[5]
Notes
- ↑ An odd description given that it is not near the kirk; however The 1963 listing for Gardens Cottage describes it as "west of kirkyard gate"
- ↑ HES record for LB31290
- ↑ Letter from George Gavin, Falkland Estate factor, to J. & F. Anderson, solicitors, 4 August 1904, quoted in Playfair and Burgess, page 94.
- ↑ Playfair and Burgess, page 439.
- ↑ A Falkland Guide, page 10.
Further images
General view
Johnston family burial enclosure
