Session 4: Tombs

Session 4 of Belief, Burial, Tombs & Tourists: the past and future of Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Greyfriars Kirkyard is famous worldwide for the lasting impressions it makes on researchers and visitors alike. This conference celebrated the role of Greyfriars in shaping Scottish history, religion and architecture and shone a light on the site's value to visitors today.

Through a wide-ranging programme, the kirkyard’s past, present and future was explored by leading academics, community researchers and heritage professionals.

This conference was delivered as part of the Making Lasting Impressions: Greyfriars Kirkyard Community Learning and Interpretation Project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage fund, which takes a co-ordinated approach to balancing enjoyment of the graveyard as a well-loved community resource and greenspace, as well as a visitor attraction.

This event originally aired on 26 June 2021.

Speakers featured in this session are:

'The best collection of C17 monuments in Scotland’: the earlier court style with Professor Aonghus MacKechnie, University of Strathclyde

Robert Mylne of Balfargie and Mr James Smith of Whitehill: masons and architects at Greyfriars at the end of seventeenth century with Dr Cristina Gonzalez-Longo, University of Strathclyde

John Bayne, his mausoleum, the story so far... with Chris Cooper, Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard

Afterlives in Stone: An Exploration of Seventeenth Century Monumental Funerary Sculpture in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh with Particular Reference to the Litill Mausoleum with Tarragon Kelham, Edinburgh College of Art