View from Burial Ground Below Regent Road

Category

Library Item

Item no

3517

Title

View from burial ground below Regent Road towards Queen's Park

Description

Houses and Holyroodhouse Palace are visible from above the headstones in New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh. The hill of Whinny Knowe rises above the rooftops in the background.

Artist / maker

Keith, Thomas

Date

1856

Size

24.7 x 28 cm

Type

Paper negative

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The New Calton Burial Ground was created in 1820 to accommodate those bodies displaced from the Old Calton Burial Ground by the construction of Waterloo Place. It is situated below Regent Road looking over to Holyrood Park. A watchtower stands in the burial ground, erected in an attempt to prevent the theft of bodies for dissection.

Holyrood Park, otherwise known as Queen's Park, lies to the south east of Holyrood Abbey and Palace. Originally the sanctuary of Holyrood Abbey it later came under royal control and was enclosed by James V in the 1540s. Its dramatic landscape is the product of a combination of volcanic activity approximately 354 million years ago and the movement of glaciers between 1 million and 10,000 years ago. It incorporates several notable features including Arthur's Seat, Salisbury Crags and the remains of the medieval St Anthony's Chapel. The park also includes Duddingston, St Margaret's and Dunsapie Lochs, the latter two having been created in 1856 as part of Prince Albert's plans to beautify the park. Today the 650 acre park is a popular site for tourists and the city's walkers, runners and cyclists.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Gravestones

Homes > Residential buildings > Castles and palaces

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Landscape > Land > Hills

Places > Edinburgh areas > Calton

Places > Edinburgh areas > Holyrood

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Religion > Religious facilities > Graveyards

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