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Duddingston Parish Church View from East of Church and Watch Tower
ED 2230
Description Duddingston Parish Church View from East of Church and Watch Tower
Date 8/1908
Collection Papers of Dr James S Richardson, architect, archaeologist, and Principal Inspector of Ancient Monume
Catalogue Number ED 2230
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 1225176, SC 536643
Scope and Content The Session House, Duddingston Parish Church, Old Church Lane, Duddingston Village, Edinburgh Duddingston Church, one of the oldest churches in Scotland still in regular use, was built on land gifted by King David I to the Abbot of Kelso in 1130. The basic structure of the church is Romanesque, with 17th- and 18th-century additions. The Session House, a curious hexagonal building with a castellated roof-line, was designed as a watch-tower against body-snatchers by Robert Brown in 1824. The church elders took it in turn to mount guard from the upper storey. In the early 19th century, the lucrative trade of 'body snatching' was common in Edinburgh. Freshly buried corpses were dug up from graveyards and sold to the Anatomy Department at Edinburgh University to be used for dissection by medical students. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/401749
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