Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh 2021Morningside Cemetery looking east to Arthur's SeatNorth section, Morningside Cemetery
Morningside Cemetery is a cemetery in south Edinburgh. It was established in 1878 by the Metropolitan Cemetery Company,[1] originally just outwith the then city boundary, the nearest suburb then being Morningside. It extends to just over 13 acres in area.[2] The cemetery contains 81 war graves.[3] Although arguably visually uninspiring the cemetery contains the graves of several important female figures; including a female air commandant, Scotland's first female surgeon, the first female Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, a Nobel Prize winner and many church missionaries.
History
The cemetery was soon enveloped by the city and now lies between Balcarres Street (to its north) and Morningside Drive (to its south). Its original entrance was very grand. This was off Belhaven Terrace to the east. However, although the entrance gates and railings still exist, this route is now blocked, a modern housing development, Belhaven Place, standing over the graveyard, in defiance of cemetery legislation. This is not the sole loss of ground: Balcarres Court has been built to the north-west; Morningside Court to the south-west; and numerous blocks have been added along most of Morningside Drive. This leaves the cemetery detached from its surroundings, hard to access, and seriously compromised in terms of its design integrity.
The developments, essentially asset-stripping in relation to the original Cemetery Company, represent a period of private ownership between the original Cemetery Company ownership and compulsory purchase by the City of Edinburgh Council in February 1992.[1]
Layout
The overall layout is broadly rectilinear but with a slight curve on its east–west axis. There is a general drop in ground levels from south to north giving an overall form of a shallow amphitheatre.
Apart from a central avenue of trees on the main east–west path the landscape is undramatic and unstructured, and lacks the atmosphere of its predecessors, such as Dean Cemetery.
The overall distribution of stones is spartan, especially towards the north. Larger monuments tend to lie to the south-west. One section lies almost detached, to the south-east, accessed through a pathway between the modern housing developments, isolated as an ignoble peninsula. The local Morningside Library has an index which can be used to locate specific stones.
Current operation
The McCulloch-Murray monument by Thomas P. Marwick (1886) Morningside Cemetery, EdinburghAlison Cunningham's grave, Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh
Morningside is one of the few city cemeteries to be open 24 hours per day. This has both advantages and disadvantages; exposing it to vandalism during unsocial hours. Vandalism levels worsened in 2020.
The cemetery remains open to burials and interment of ashes. Style of monument is not controlled.[4]
War graves
The cemetery is an official Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery containing 49 war graves from World War I and 32 from World War II.[3] The dead largely represent those dying of wounds following repatriation, linking to the nearby City Hospital. The Cross of Remembrance stands in the north-east section of the cemetery.
Unusually two war graves are of female victims (both from the ATS): Margaret White Walker (1922-1945) and Jean Dewar Scougall (1921-1943).
John MacRae (1836-1893) civil engineer who worked on the early stages of the Suez Canal
Very Rev Alexander Mair (1834-1911) final Moderator of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and his son Prof Alexander William Mair (1875-1928) scholar of Greek and academic author
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