Friends of Warriston Cemetery
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Friends of Warriston Cemetery
@fowarristoncem.bsky.social
Friends of Warriston Cemetery was founded in 2013 to safeguard the heritage of the first garden cemetery in Edinburgh. We always welcome new volunteers. www.friendsofwarristoncemetery.com
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We will be holding our annual Service of Remembrance at 9.30am on Sunday 9th November 2025. We are very grateful to the Rev Matthew Bicket of Inverleith St Serf’s Church who will be leading this short Service of Remembrance at the Cross of Sacrifice. All are welcome. #Edinburgh #RemebranceSunday
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The first scientific evidence corroborating the medieval presence of the "Black Death" in Edinburgh has been identified in DNA present in the plaque on the teeth of a skeleton unearthed during archaeological excavations under St Giles Cathedral in 1981.

Story here 👇
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM
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#31DaysOfGraves Day 31: Memento mori

This winged skull appears beneath a wall-mounted tablet, in the chancel of St Mary’s in my #OnePlaceStudy parish of Fawsley, “In Memory of Lucy Knightley of Fawsley Esqr. who lyes interr’d near this place. He died unmarried, & left a considerable Sume of mony”
October 31, 2025 at 12:05 PM
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#31DaysOfGraves Day#31 Memento Mori

Seven years ago today I spent a fascinating hour or so wandering around Abercorn Kirkyard in West Lothian looking at all the Memento Mori gravestones.

Here are a few of the best...
October 31, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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#31daysofgraves #31 Memento Mori
A cadaver/transi slab, said to be for Jane Preston, at Stamullen, Ireland, carved with a decomposing corpse in an open shroud, tied at head and foot, c. 1450.
Many more photos at the link.
www.irishstones.org/place.aspx?p...
October 31, 2025 at 1:25 PM
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Day 31 of #31DaysOfGraves - #MementoMori

We're ending this year's annual celebration of the art and heritage of grave memorials with this absolutely stunning 18thC stone from Garvald, East Lothian

Thanks to @annaandthedead.bsky.social for curating the themes again this year. Happy Halloween all! 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 6:07 PM
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Burial grounds or memorials—or communities within them—can be researched as #OnePlaceStudies, a brilliant blend of #FamilyHistory and #LocalHistory. If that is something you’d like to learn more about, visit our website for more information. You can also download our PDF guide to one-place studies.
#31DaysOfGraves. Day 19 catch-up: Social Group. My Waters Upton #OnePlaceStudy began with the churchyard then grew to take in the parish, including its cemetery, & revealed social groups—people who worked / socialised / played / prayed together, communities within a community—in both burial grounds.
October 31, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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Day 31: Momento Mori

Happy Halloween 🎃

#31daysofgraves
November 1, 2025 at 1:13 AM
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What cemetery plants mean: A horticulture extension specialist explains how flowers, trees and other botanical motifs honor those buried beneath #DayOfTheDead #DioDeLosMuertos
Symbolism of cemetery plants: How flowers, trees and other botanical motifs honor those buried beneath
Many plants and flowers have symbolic meanings, and their presence on a grave may reflect something unique about the deceased.
buff.ly
November 1, 2025 at 11:30 AM
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Day 30: Colour

I am a huge green moss and blue patina enjoyer.

York cemetery, North Yorkshire, UK.

#31daysofgraves
October 30, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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I forgot this one the other day. #31DaysofGraves - Tree
October 31, 2025 at 3:04 AM
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#31DaysofGraves Day 31: Memento Mori In Cramond churchyard, Edinburgh.
October 31, 2025 at 6:32 AM
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When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there.
Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman
October 31, 2025 at 8:08 AM
#31DaysOfGraves Day 31: Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die"); symbols or tropes acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.The most common motif is a skull, but other motifs include a coffin, hourglass or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. #Edinburgh
October 31, 2025 at 10:03 AM
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October 31, 2025 at 9:16 AM
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Happy #Halloween week 🎃
If you are looking for something different to do, come along to my free talk this coming Saturday. "Walking in the footsteps of the #Glasgow #Witches"
Sat 1 Nov • 1pm • Mitchell Library
More info via Eventbrite:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-in...
October 30, 2025 at 7:34 AM
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#31daysofgraves #30 colour The grave of Rudolph Nureyev, who died in 1993, in the Russian cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-bois, near Paris. It is a mosaic designed to look like one of the Kilim rugs that Nureyev collected.
nureyev.org/rudolf-nurey...
mymodernmet.com/rudolf-nurey...
October 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM
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#31DaysOfGraves day 30 colour. Either side of the #Grecian revival church at Ayot St Lawrence are two mausolea, one for Sir Lionel Lyde who commissioned the church and the other for his wife Rachel. This photo was taken at sunset. For those that care #Pentax K20D, SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm kit lens. 1/2
October 30, 2025 at 11:53 AM
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A symbol for charity can be seen on William Birkbeck's headstone in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Australia - Portion 9, Section 16, Grave 9.
October 18, 2025 at 9:33 PM
#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 Colour. Changing colours and crunchy leaves make for a perfect Autumn walk in Warriston. #Edinburgh #Autumn #WarristonCemetery
October 30, 2025 at 11:08 AM
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#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 - Colour

The Clutterbuck family is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Australia - Portion 7A, Section 116, Grave 30.

Yellow lichen has made their headstone a standout in the cemetery.
October 29, 2025 at 8:52 PM
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Day 29 of #31DaysOfGraves - Occupation

A gravestone erected in 1765 over the shared plot of members of the Society of Coach Drivers in the Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh.

These Canongate-based coachmen travelled the Edinburgh to London route, a journey that could take 10 or more days in winter.
October 29, 2025 at 9:27 PM
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#31daysofgraves
Day 30 Colour
Terracotta wheel head cross
Hampstead Cemetery
October 30, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 Colour: The cast iron memorial for Glasgow merchant Alexander Mackenzie at Glasgow Necropolis. Credit to my wee sister for all the Necropolis photos I have posted.
October 30, 2025 at 9:17 AM
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I'm delighted to be presenting on mourning crape as a token of death at the Symbols of Mortality online conference in February 2026. And I'm honored to be among such an absolutely stellar roster of death scholars. Take a look.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/symbols-of...
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead
Symbols of Mortality Online Conference
FREE Online Conference exploring the world of mortality symbolism, by some of the subjects leading historians and researchers.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM