I wanted to do something in-keeping with October and Halloween but noticed that ‘haunted Aberdeen’ has been done more than once AND promoted on all ‘Visit Aberdeen’ social channels! So, I thought, how about a guide to the kirkyards and cemeteries of Aberdeen city?! Although, if I’m honest, I don’t find them spooky at all!
I considered ‘the city’ as anywhere within walking distance and I considered that as having the Don and Dee as Northern and Southern boundaries, Anderson Drive as my Western boundary and, well, the sea as my Eastern boundary. Obviously! There were 9 cemeteries and kirkyards that I could find but please let me know if I’ve forgotten any. I couldn’t find much interesting historical or official information on most of the places so it’s more about what I happened upon whilst I was having a mooch about.
Before we get into it, there are 3 things I want to say about visiting cemeteries or kirkyards. Firstly, it’s crazy what you can learn about people and the local history just from reading headstones. Secondly, it’s interesting what kind of conversations walking around a cemetery with another person can spark. Thirdly, it doesn’t have to be a morbid or morose event but obviously be respectful of where you are. Don’t be a dick!
St. Machar – The Chanonry
St Machar Cathedral is in Old Aberdeen. It sits above Seaton Park, near Cruickshank botanical gardens and the pretty part of the University of Aberdeen and because of that I think this is the prettiest and most peaceful out of the 9 to go for a wander.
I first came here because it’s close to work and I wanted to go for a wander over lunch…but also, I had read in multiple places that the left upper quarter of William Wallace was interred in the cathedral behind a star. I then found out from the lovely staff at the cathedral that this is very much not true. It seemed to be something that they get asked a lot! Deep down, I still hope that part of William Wallace is there and that for some inherently mystical reason the cathedral staff have to throw tourists, like me, off the scent!
As St Machar is the first place I visited when I intended to write this blog it’s the first place I noticed the square and compass mark of the Freemasons with the G in the middle. Apparently, this stands for God, Geometry or Great Architect depending on your persuasion. I guess it doesn’t tell you much, other than the owner of the grave is a Freemason, but once I’d seen it on one headstone, I started to see it everywhere!
Snow Kirk – College Bounds
I’ve actually written about the Snow Kirk before in another blog (https://fromakingdombythesea.wordpress.com/2020/07/30/aberdeen/). The Snow Kirk, also known as the kirkyard of St Mary of the Snows, is a secret graveyard tucked right in the midst of the Old Aberdeen university campus. It was once the home of a Catholic church and, as such, the Snow Kirk is a Catholic place of burial. As we all know Catholics weren’t super popular during the reformation but what happened to the Snow Kirk during this time of upheaval is apparently a matter of debate. The church no longer stands but the graveyard still remains and is still in use, although rarely. As far as I know, very few people know that the Snow Kirk is there and even fewer have actually visited. It’s worth going. I think it’s a weirdly haunting place, not because of the dead, but because of where it is and what surrounds it now. It’s almost like people just shut it away and forgot it was there.
St. Peter’s – King Street
St. Peter’s spans a large area between King Street and Spital, although, as far as I’m aware, the gate leading onto Spital is always locked. This graveyard is really quite stunning with lots of trees, a small mausoleum (although that sounds a bit grand), a fair bit of wildlife and some very old and interesting gravestones. In fact, now I think about it, it might just top St. Machar as the most beautiful graveyard.
Having said that, it also feels a bit dark and isolated in parts. Or, maybe it’s better to say I felt a bit isolated when I visited there alone! I walked right to the back of the graveyard towards Spital where the oldest graves are and noticed that the exit was locked…and then I noticed how many hiding places there were…and then I thought about the couple of lone men I’d seen walking around towards the King Street part of the graveyard. (Men who were almost definitely just minding their own business!) For some reason the Margaret Atwood quote, “‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” then came to mind and I powerwalked out of St. Peter’s so fast I probably looked like I’d seen a ghost!
But before I ran away, I did spot a few interesting things. This graveyard holds a lot of people who had very grand jobs; tea planters, magistrates, accountants and authors, including the author of ‘Thrummy Cap’. I suggest you look it up, it’s pretty cute. I always like to spot old job titles and also find the oldest headstone. In this case, the oldest grave I found was from 1806, one Euphemiae Mathison.
I also came across the pretty tragic story of Thomas M. Stuart born in 1860. He was the Chief Engineer of the Arrow Liner, Principia. The Principia was on fire for 3 days before it was wrecked on “a dark stormy night” off the Faroe Islands in 1885. He was thought to have survived in the sea for 40 hours before he “perished of the cold”. He was picked up 2 days after the wreck and buried on the Faroes, only to be re-interred in Aberdeen later. This was all written on the monument in St. Peter’s. I later found out that only 1 man was rescued from the Principia disaster and 27 men drowned.
Trinity Cemetery – Seaforth Road
Like the Snow Kirk I’ve also talked about Trinity Cemetery before, specifically the Titanic story, which is in the same blog post I mentioned earlier (https://fromakingdombythesea.wordpress.com/2020/07/30/aberdeen/). In short, buried here is the Cornishman Robert Hichens. Robert Hichens was the steersman and quartermaster of the Titanic and was at the helm during it’s tragic accident. He survived the Titanic in a lifeboat alongside an American millionairess, but tragedy apparently followed him until he had a heart attack of the Aberdeenshire coast. He was buried by the shipping company in a cheap grave without a marker. But years later, his family who thought he’d been buried at sea, learned about his situation all the way up here in the Northeast of Scotland. Originally, they laid a wooden cross in his space but later funded a new memorial which has only recently been placed. As a nice touch it also pays tribute to another man that was interred with him.
There is also an interesting memorial “in memory of those who gave their bodies for the increase of knowledge and the advance of medicine”. (It’s at the top of the hill, closest to the sea.) It’s not big or fancy but I’ve just never seen anything like that before.
John Knox – Mounthooly
The John Knox church on the Mounthooly roundabout has now been converted into flats but of course the pretty kirkyard behind the old church still remains.
I actually went here a while back, way before I thought about doing this blog because I’d heard about an interested wooden plaque/headstone/monument…I can’t quite remember now! I couldn’t find it. I can’t find any pictures of it and information on it is scanty, which makes me wonder if it’s really there at all. I would like to go back in winter though when there are fewer leaves to have another look. If you know if it exists or where it is, please give me a shout!
St. Nicholas – Union Street
St. Nicholas is a very old and higgledy-piggledy kirkyard, which seems to be full of interesting folk such as Captain William Penny, an arctic explorer who assisted in the Franklin search expeditions. It’s too long a story to tell here but tale of the Franklin expedition and the search parties that followed is really interesting. I really need to go back at some point and have more of a read around. St. Nicholas is right in the centre of the city, on Union Street so it’s definitely an easy place to locate and walk through.
I came to St. Nicholas with my best pal, Anneli, and she provided me with the story I’ll tell here. I haven’t found it yet, but the grave of John Henry Anderson is in this kirkyard. My guess is that you’ve never heard of him, but Houdini certainly had, and he actually paid for his memorial. John Anderson was an excellent illusionist and great at promoting himself. At his height he had a theatre in Glasgow and performed all across the globe. Apparently his most notorious illusion was the ‘Great Gun Trick’, also known as the ‘Bullet Catch’. From these names I bet you can guess what that entailed! The young Houdini admired John Anderson so much that he paid his grave in Aberdeen a visit. Once he was at the graveside however, he noted how poorly kept the grave and memorial was so decided to pay for a new one. That memorial is still in St. Nicholas.
East St. Clement’s – St. Clement Street
St. Clement’s is the kirkyard I almost missed. I read that there was something in the old fishing village of Footdee but I didn’t remember it and when I went to have a look I couldn’t find it. Footdee is tiny so if there was a kirkyard then I would have seen it…so I thought whatever I’d read was wrong and I went home! Luckily whilst I was making the map for this blog I noticed a church and kirkyard in the centre of the harbour industrial area near Footdee. It’s not the prettiest area and the kirkyard is unfortunately littered with condoms, but despite that, the boarded up church and old kirkyard are rather nice.
This, like many of the graveyards in Aberdeen, is the home to many folk with seafaring careers. Mostly Ship Builders, Shipmasters, Ship Owners, Tide Masters (Customs Officials) and Merchants. There are however also a few Stay Makers (Corset Makers), Bookbinders and Skinners.
There was one headstone in particular that caught my interest. Robert Cattanach (Shipmaster) died in Jamaica in 1824. His son, a Shipmaster, died in Laguna, South America in 1839. Another son, also a Shipmaster, died at the mouth of the Danube in 1847. Finally, a Son in Law was ‘lost at sea’. All of the men in this grave died young, all of the women lived well into their 70s. I think that probably says something about the life and times of seafaring folk in the 1800s!
Nellfield – Nellfield Place
I went to Nellfield with my very good friend Anneli. She’s a great friend for many reasons but the fact that she didn’t skip a beat in agreeing to come to a couple of graveyards with me and the ease at which she can chat about anything, including death, are definitely good reasons! It’s not often that you can turn to your pal and ask ‘buried or cremated’?!
This cemetery was very peaceful and certainly worth a wander around. Anneli is Swedish and told me that many of the cemeteries in Sweden are more like parks with plenty of benches for people to come and enjoy the space as well as paying their respects. I think Nellfield would be a lovely place to sit and take a break but it doesn’t really seem to be ‘the done thing’ over here! I think people here would probably think you were a bit weird and disrespectful if you whipped out your picnic next to a load of headstones. Such a shame.
There are lots of important sounding folk interred here including an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Members of Parliament, a Lord Provost, a Naval Commander and a Customs Commissioner in China. In fact, the memorial to the folk working in China is really quite cool.
The only other thing I saw that definitely feels worth mentioning is a memorial to Mary Scot Bryce, it just seems quite sad! She was a native of South Carolina and the memorial states she ‘visited this country in search of her health but found a grave’. Poor woman!
Allenvale – Riverside Drive
I’ve passed by this graveyard multiple times when heading out towards Banchory and thought, ‘I must go there’. Mostly because the view from the road reminds me vaguely of the Necropolis in Glasgow…although I didn’t think it was so alike once I was walking around. (The Necropolis is super cool by the way.) I’m not going to lie, Allenvale was a bit of a rush job. We still spent about 45 minutes there and walked around the whole area but didn’t stop much. This place is huge! Maybe it was because I was with an Italian but we noticed a lot of Italian graves…and also a lot of military graves if that floats your boat.
So that’s it, the 9 kirkyards and cemeteries of Aberdeen city. Maybe I wouldn’t quite suggest doing what I did, tracking down burial sites and then systematically visiting them all, but I would definitely suggest having a wander in a graveyard once in a while. It’s surprising what you can learn and how much it can clear your head, they’re peaceful places. I’m going to leave you with a poem that I found written on a headstone in St. Peters;
How are the roses on that cheek decayed,
Which late, the purple light of youth displayed.
Health on his form cach sprightly grave bestowed,
With life and thought cach speaking fouture glowed.
And yet while fate delays th’impending, we
Are roused to thought anticipate the blow.
Last thus encompassed with funereal gloom,
Site one, ye bend o’or some untimely tomb.
O’ur my dust, loved parents, friends, thy fears, pain.
You know by what means I am gone but rouse thy state.
Do not indulge excessive grief,
Have faith in god, you’ll find relief.
In A Kingdom By The Sea 