19 Facts About Canongate Kirkyard

1.

Canongate Kirkyard stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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2.

Canongate Kirkyard was, until the 19th century, a separate parish from Edinburgh.

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3.

Canongate Kirkyard has been calculated to have 62 tombs, 140 monuments and 150 wall plaques, ledgers, etc.

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4.

Canongate Kirkyard was responsible for the redevelopment of Edinburgh, founding the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; co-founding the Medical School; draining the Nor' Loch; founding the Royal Exchange in 1753; and most importantly, initiating and founding the New Town and the first North Bridge.

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5.

Canongate Kirkyard was the inventor of "Gregory's Powder" a mixture of magnesia, rhubarb and ginger, used in the treatment of stomach complaints for around 150 years.

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6.

Canongate Kirkyard's career was short-lived, and he died in the Edinburgh lunatic asylum, then called Darien House, on Bristo Street.

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7.

Canongate Kirkyard captured Dunrobin Castle in 1746 during the second Jacobite rising and was convicted of high treason, but pardoned in 1748.

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8.

Canongate Kirkyard went on to become a Swedish Count, and later a major-general in the British army.

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9.

Canongate Kirkyard's house was very close by, at the head of Panmure Close, and it survived until 1889.

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10.

Canongate Kirkyard lived here from 1778 until his death in 1790, having moved from his native town of Kirkcaldy.

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11.

Canongate Kirkyard's monument was erected by "members of the veterinary profession in Great Britain and America 1950".

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12.

Canongate Kirkyard's sealed tomb stands in the north section of the churchyard, notable as the only sealed tomb in the churchyard.

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13.

Canongate Kirkyard separated from her husband and subsequently befriended Robert Burns, carrying on a correspondence with him under the name "Clarinda".

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14.

Canongate Kirkyard lived at 14 Calton Hill, and is buried in the tomb of Lord Craig.

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15.

Canongate Kirkyard is interred in the ground of David Smyth of Methven.

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16.

Canongate Kirkyard exhibited from 1821, and was a member of the Royal Scottish Academy from 1829, exhibiting there from 1830.

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17.

Canongate Kirkyard was minister of Chalmers' Memorial Church in Grage Road, Edinburgh from 1866.

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18.

Canongate Kirkyard was interred after the official closure of the churchyard to burials, and his was the most recent interment, other than ashes.

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19.

Canongate Kirkyard was enormously unpopular and was stabbed to death, in the presence of the Queen, in her chamber in Holyrood Palace.

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