the border and The Borders

[low_delta]

Our first day in Scotland was spent in Edinburgh. On Monday, the second day, as soon as we'd had breakfast, we left the city for the Forth Bridge. That's just west of the city. Then we went to Rosslyn Chapel, which is just south of it. After that, we went to the southeast, towards the Flodden Battlefield. This area of Scotland is called The Borders. On the way, we passed through the town of Coldstream, which is on the River Tweed, which is the English border, at that point.


Coldstream, on the Tweed.


Coldstream Bridage, over the Tweed.


Fisherman, in the Tweed.

So after stopping to look at the bridge, we came to the even-smaller town of Cornhill-on-Tweed, which is a half a mile from the River Tweed. But it had a quaint little kirkyard, with its very old graves.


Mary Nevins the beloved daughter of James & Margaret Nevins who died at Crookham April 11th 1881 aged 13 years
This lovely bud so young so fair
Called home by early doom
Came but to show how sweet a flower
In Paradise could bloom

I had wanted to check out the old cemeteries of Edinburgh, but we never had time to see Greyfriars or Calton Hill. I just poked my head into the cemetery below the castle (seen in the photos of the view), but it wasn't very interesting. This one looked just like you'd expect, and had a few very old graves.

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Most old cemeteries we found had a lot of graves dating to the mid and late 1800's. This one had a handful from the 1700's.

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Like this one, that seems to read 1733. The one behind it on the left has a date of 1797.

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In memory of Robert Spence who died at Burton, 23rd November 1865, aged 24 years
Also Agnes his sister who died at Cornhill, 23rd February 1845, aged 4-1/2 years
Also Jane Spence, mother of the above, wife of Robert Spence, who died at Newcastle, 4th December 1876, aged 73 years
Also of the said Robert Spence who died 1st October 1877, aged 74 years
Also Andrew Smith son in law of the above... 54 years
Also Elizabeth his daughter...
Also Helen, wife...

Detail from the above.

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Comments

[mellary4.livejournal.com]

1700's was a long time ago but to me the gravestones look older. What is the climate like? I suppose if it's wet they would age more? They are all beautiful.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

These stones are all sandstone, and moisture is not kind to sandstone. The climate is somewhat wet.

[mellary4.livejournal.com]

Oh! Sandstone. I wasn't expecting that. We used sandstone in art class for sculpting once and I can see how that would be easier to carve for gravestones but not good with weather. Now that I know they are sandstone I'm impressed with how well they stood up over time. I'm sure the stone they used was more densely packed than what I used but still...

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

It is interesting how ... non comforting some of the carved images are. Some are downright sinister.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Well... not being the fan of graveyards as you are... gotta say that the dead are not exactly in friendly looking confines.

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

The angles in the first photos are so nice and long, everything looks huge...like you were shrunk down to Lilliputian size for your journey.

Hmm, maybe I'm going to imagine it that way.

[planetgeorge.livejournal.com]

I had seen Greyfriars cemetery on Ghost Adventures.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I was reading about it today. It appears to be very haunted.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I love the old churchyards in the UK...

they are as old graveyards should be, sinking back into the earth. Did you get to Aberdeen at all? In old Aberdeen there is Saint Machar's Cathedral (not a Cathedral any more but everybody still calls it that) with the most crowded with tombstones churchyard I'd ever seen. We walked through it almost at dusk and Manolo was totally freaked out (he has this Spanish thing about cemeteries) but I thought it was fantastic.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

No, no Aberdeen. We didn't make it to that part of the country.

[promiseoftin.livejournal.com]

How tranquil. I love it. Sad about the children that passed, though.

Kirkyard

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

When I saw you went to a cemetery I thought, "Oh, of course low_delta would go there!"

They're lovely photographs. It's interesting that the oldest grave is from the 1700s. I'd thought "well, gosh - a place settled so much longer than America must have graves from the 1200s all over the place!" D'uh. ;>

Re: Kirkyard

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I think the 1500's is the oldest we saw. Aside from the neolithic tombs, of course.