GRAVEYARD AND WATCH TOWER

The graveyard surrounds the Church and is enclosed on all sides by a high stone wall. It contains a good selection of early headstones and table tops, including a monument erected over the grave of the Duddingston minister and landscape artist, John Thomson.

A two storey stone hexagonal building with round arched latticed windows on each wall and a corbelled and castellated parapet. The Watch Tower dates from 1824 and is situated at the left hand side of the entrance gates to the Church.

Until 1832, there was no legal method of procuring bodies for anatomical research and this led to the ghuIish activities of the 'Resurrectionists', who at night dug up newly buried corpses and sold them to dissecting rooms. Burke and Hare are the most infamous of these characters, although they were given to simply murdering their victims thus avoiding the effort of digging them up. As a result of these activities, the custom arose of 'watching' the Churchyard at night. The Watch Tower thus provided shelter for the two Church Elders who were required to watch the grave for twenty one days following an internment. The Watch Tower is now used as a Session House by the Church Elders.


	DUDDINGSTON KIRK \| home DUDDINGSTON VILLAGE \| PLAN OF DUDDINGSTON VILLAGE \| THE KIRK \| EXTERNAL DETAILS \| EXTERNAL IMAGES \| INTERNAL DETAILS \| CHANCEL ARCH \| STAINED GLASS \| DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCH \| STAGES IN DEVELOPMENT \| MANSE AND GROUNDS \| GRAVEYARD AND WATCH TOWER \| THOMSON'S TOWER \| LOUPING-ON-STANE & JOUGS COLLAR \| PLANS AND SECTIONS \| REFERENCES \| CONTACT GRAVEYARD AND WATCH TOWER THE GRAVEYARD The graveyard surrounds the Church and is enclosed on all sides by a high stone wall. It contains a good selection of early headstones and table tops, including a monument erected over the grave of the Duddingston minister and landscape artist, John Thomson. JOHN THOMSON'S TOMB Against the south wall of the Church are two 17th Century strapworked and pedimented mural monuments to David Scott and William Duncan. David Scott's Tomb William Duncan's Tomb THE WATCH TOWER THE WATCH TOWER A two storey stone hexagonal building with round arched latticed windows on each wall and a corbelled and castellated parapet. The Watch Tower dates from 1824 and is situated at the left hand side of the entrance gates to the Church. Until 1832, there was no legal method of procuring bodies for anatomical research and this led to the ghuIish activities of the 'Resurrectionists', who at night dug up newly buried corpses and sold them to dissecting rooms. Burke and Hare are the most infamous of these characters, although they were given to simply murdering their victims thus avoiding the effort of digging them up. As a result of these activities, the custom arose of 'watching' the Churchyard at night. The Watch Tower thus provided shelter for the two Church Elders who were required to watch the grave for twenty one days following an internment. The Watch Tower is now used as a Session House by the Church Elders.