Bobby and the Graveyard

The next day I had a little more direction in my wandering, having decided to go to the graveyard and the Christmas market (which of course go hand in hand). I passed a nice war memorial on my way.

This pub and close I passed amused me because of Simon Pegg's film 'At World's End' which indeed features a so named pub.

 

Finally I reached the Christmas market and enjoyed wandering around, though I didn't buy anything. The misty morning gave my surroundings a very pretty atmosphere, and I was able to get some nice pictures of the town.

Different views of the city from the wooded valley below.

Next I went to visit Bobby and the associated pub. John Grey was a constable in the 1800s in Edinburgh who had a watchdog named Bobby. After John died, the story goes that Bobby gaurded his masters grave in Kirkyard for fourteen years until his own death. For his loyalty to his master, he had a memorial statue erected just outside the graveyard, and the pub shown in the photo is where Bobby was fed nightly until his death.

Bobby's memorial statue

Because he was a dog, Bobby could not be buried next to his master as that was on consecrated ground, so he was buried just within the graveyard in the front of the church - as close as he could possibly be to his master, only 75 yards away.

The graveyard itself was rather eerie. Misty and cold, empty and quiet except for some circling crows, it certainly had a creepyness factor to it. Most of the graves were old, from the 1800s, with the writing almost faded away. The crypts were the creepiest though, with the old iron wrought gates often hanging off the walls at odd angles. Apparently there was a free graveyard tour you could take at ten p.m. any night, but I had no inclination to be scared to death.

Many of the gravestones were haphazardly placed, leaning over or some were completely collapsed. I also found this little plaque rather interesting as it explained why many of the graves were barred - at first I wondered about vampire/zombie superstition and that maybe it was to keep the dead in but it's quite the opposite; it's to stop the grave-robbing that was rife for researching human anatomy in Medical schools!

These two are my favourite pictures of the graveyard and communicate the creepiness quite well. The old dead looking trees, the moss growing up the gravestones, and this extremely well carved stone skull.