Hill Church Graveyard
Date 2 November 2011
Event ID 916777
Category Management
Type Site Management
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/916777
Rubble walled enclosure on steeply sloping site at edge of ravine. Many headstones placed flat into ground. Earlier gravestones immediately to S and W of church with some tablestones and simple moulded apex styles including flat slab with large relief carved upside down letters 'HERE LYES THE BODYS OF JOHN BAXTER' died 1691; 1706 slab with skull flanked by crossed bones; small plain incised headstone dated '1745' and worded 'HERE LYS THE BONES OF JEAN MALL''; and winged angel to simple incised stone (weathered inscription). Burying ground of Macpherson family to SW boundary with cross-finialled crowstepped entrance (to W) incorporating boarded timber door surmounted by carved panel bearing 'MACPHERSON BLAIRGOWRIE 1789' over family coat of arms. Later monuments include row of 19th century terraced enclosures to S, some retaining decorative ironwork, and steeply sloping site to E with scattered stones including square-section corniced ashlar column with inset marble panel 'In Memory of David Martin shoemaker who died 10 Aug 1804' surmounted by stylised pediments with corner acroteria and carved lamb on shallow plinth dated 1845.
Owing to continued vandalism during the later 19th century, the local authority set many of the headstones into the ground. Wilsher lists an 'Abraham and Isaac' headstone dated 1769, no longer to be found.(Historic Scotland)
