Travel : Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh

Visit Old Calton Cemetery the resting place for philosopher David Hume, publisher William Blackwood and clergyman Dr. Robert Candlish

Just off Princes Street and a short walk from Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station is Old Calton Cemetery.

Established in 1718, the Old Calton Cemetery is like a Scottish “Pere Lachaise” cemetery, filled with elegant and interesting gravestones and tombs.

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Did you know that Old Calton Cemetery is home to the only monument to the American Civil War outside the United States?

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Scottish-American Soldiers Monument

The American Civil War Memorial, also known as the Scottish-American Soldiers Monument, was dedicated on 21st August 1893 to Scots who fought and died in the American Civil War.

Depicting a standing figure of Abraham Lincoln, with a freed slave giving thanks at his feet.

The monument was erected at American expense to a small group of Scots (only one of whom, William Duff, is buried under the monument, the rest being nearby). They had all fought for the Union (the North) in the American Civil War.

The inscription, “To preserve the jewel of liberty in the framework of Freedom” is a quotation from the writings of Abraham Lincoln.

Those interred and commemorated are:

Sergeant Major John McEwan, Company H, 65th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry

Lt Col William L. Duff, 2nd Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery (died of wounds on return to Edinburgh)

Robert Steedman, Company E, 5th Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry

James Wilkie, Company C, 1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Cavalry

Robert Ferguson, Company F, 57th New York Volunteer Infantry

Alexander Smith, Company G, 66th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry.

Martyrs’ Monument

In 1793 several members of The Friends of the People were sentenced to 14 years’ deportation, being charged before Lord Braxfield with “unconscious sedition” and treason for attempting to correspond with the French.

The obelisk was erected in their memory. The inscription reads:

To the memory of Thomas Muir, Thomas Fyshe-Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot, and Joseph Gerrald, erected by the Friends of Parliamentary Reform in England and Scotland 1844.

I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause – it shall ultimately prevail – it shall finally triumph – speech of Thomas Muir in the Court of Justiciary on the 30th August 1793.

I know that what has been done these two days will be re-judged – speech of William Skirving on the 7th January 1794.

The Scottish Reform Act 1832 eventually brought about their aim, and the men were pardoned in 1838.

David Hume

Historian and philosopher David Hume , author of Treatise of Human Nature, was an influence on many other thinkers and public figures.

In his will Hume requested that a “Monument be built over my body … with an Inscription containing only my Name and the Year of my Birth and Death, leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest.”

Designed by Robert Adam in 1777. Hume was not religious, however his niece is also interred here and she added a Christian piece which reads “Behold, I come quickly, thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”.