Edinburgh, Canongate Churchyard
Cemetery (Post Medieval), Churchyard (Post Medieval), Unidentified Pottery (14th Century) - (18th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, Canongate Churchyard
Classification Cemetery (Post Medieval), Churchyard (Post Medieval), Unidentified Pottery (14th Century) - (18th Century)
Canmore ID 52463
Site Number NT27SE 415
NGR NT 26419 73816
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52463
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 415 26419 73816
A collection of 55 potsherds, ranging in date from 14th to 18th century, and an 18th-century clay pipe bowl were recovered as surface finds from Canongate churchyard. The finds are now in the collections of Edinburgh City Museum.
A T Simpson, S Stevenson and N Holmes 1981.
INVENTORY OF GRAVEYARD AND CEMETERY SITES IN SCOTLAND REFERENCE:
Address: Canongate Churchyard, Canongate, Edinburgh
Postcode: EH8 8BN
Status: Closed for burials but maintained
Size: 0.76 hectares, 1.87 acres
TOIDs:
Number of gravestones: Not known
Earliest gravestone: Not known
Most recent gravestone: Not known
Description: Burial ground associated with a church
Data Sources: OS MasterMap checked 20 September 2005; Bereavement Services Portal checked 20 September 2005
NMRS Print Room
Canongate Churchyard
2 prints of memorial to Adam Smith
The Society of Coachdrivers Stone, showing also brick building beyond
Inglis Photograph Collection
Acc No 1994/90
Project (1997)
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.
The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.
Field Visit (16 October 2002)
Bronze profile portrait of young 'Clarinda', facing right, with her long waving hair held back in an elaborate arrangement of cascading ribbons. The right shoulder, nearest the viewer, is cut off; the chest bare apart from a sweep of drapery over the left shoulder.
The Ninety Burns Club approached the Town Council of Edinburgh in 1899 asking for a subscription towards restoring the grave of Clarinda. The Town Council recommended taking no action (1)
In 1910 The Builder quoted the Glasgow Herald: 'The Edinburgh Ninety Burns Club have initiated a movement to place a tablet on the grave in Canongate Churchyard of Mrs Maclehose, the 'Clarinda' of Burns.' The Builder considered this to be 'a little unreasonable', their argument being that 'to place on the gravestone of one, the resting-place of whose remains is thereby already sufficiently recorded, a tablet to the poet's individual vision of the animated flesh, were not only to commemorate what is not there, to confound with the immortal Clarinda the mortal Mrs Maclehose, but also, and not subtly, to slight the poet the promoters ostensibly esteem.' (2)
On 16 June 1922 The Building News reported that the bronze had been unveiled on 10 June (3).
Inscriptions : Cut in stone below oval portrait: CLARINDA
Signatures : Beneath bust (incised letters): H S Gamley A.R.S.A.
Design period : 1910-1922
Year of unveiling : 1922
Unveiling details : 10 June 1922
Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1480)
