Warriston Cemetery

Warriston Cemetery, 79 Easter Warriston, Edinburgh, EH7 4QY
Email: Bereavement@edinburgh.gov.uk

Occupying around 14 acres of sloping ground on the north side of the Water of Leith and containing tens of thousands of burials, Warriston Cemetery is afforded the same status as a Category A listed building.

It was the first of five cemeteries designed by architect David Cousin, followed by the Dean, Dalry, Rosebank and Newington Cemeteries. Constructed and owned by the Edinburgh Cemetery Company, a private company that formed in 1840, it belonged to a vogue for large, modern, ordered ‘garden cemeteries’ intended to replace the overcrowded, cramped, and chaotic graveyards in the centres of ancient towns. Such sites provided a choice in death for the upper and middle-class suburbanite city residents who emerged during the Victorian era.

After many decades of serious neglect while continuing in private hands, Edinburgh City Council compulsorily purchased the graveyard in 1994. Despite the best efforts of Council staff and a volunteer Friends group that formed in 2013, nature and the occasional vandal have made their presence known across the site, badly damaging many of its Victorian memorial stones.

If you are interested in finding out more about the site or the many, many interesting folk interred there visit the Friends of Warriston Cemetery website or the graveyard’s Wikipedia page.

The cemetery site is open to the public every day, but if you can’t make it along in-person anytime soon Edinburgh’s Parks and Greenspaces team commissioned Captured Realities to produce the immersive 360° tour below. Have a virtual visit today!


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