Graveyards & Lord Voldemort

Today, I went to a graveyard. 

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I went on a tour in the Greyfriars Kirkyard. I returned to the graveyard, in daylight this time, to take some photos and find the grave of Tom Riddle. (You may want to read or re-read that post, as there are a lot of stories in it that I'm not going to repeat). 

It is always so interesting to be in an old graveyard. A number of the larger and more ornate grave sites were decorated with angels and skulls.

Burials began here in the 16th century. 

Look! Frost!

Along the edges of some parts of the graveyard are what basically amount to little stone-walled rooms, some of which have no decoration in them, some of which, such as this one, are secured with bars and contain statues or other markers.

This one obviously does not have anything inside. Why, I could not tell you.

There are also a large number of free-standing tombstones, from the ornate to the simple.

This is the tomb of Sir George Mackenzie, who you might remember from my story about the Mackenzie poltergeist. Since 1999, when a homeless person broke into Mackenzie's stone coffin for the night, Greyfriars Churchyard has been the epicentre of an escalation of unexplained events linked to the ghost of Mackenzie; known colloquially as the Mackenzie Poltergeist. The Mackenzie Poltergeist has been called the most well-documented paranormal phenomenon in the world.

There are also markers on the wall of the church itself, as well as plaques on the wall surrounding the graveyard.

As seen here.

The graveyard is a popular tourist destination - there were a ton of other people wandering around while we were there.

This is the last standing segment of the wall which once surrounded Edinburgh to protect them from the English.

What looks to be a bench on the left of the photograph above is in fact a tomb - why it is made like that, I do not know, but there were several like that.

Again with the (very cool) skeletons and skulls.

Greyfriars Bobby is probably one of the most famous legends of Edinburgh. I think I had about four different people tell it to me when I told them I was moving to Edinburgh.

The story goes that Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman. When John Gray died he was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby then became known locally, spending the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave until he died, 14 years later.

I was listening to a tour while waiting for Alix and Melissa though, and he said the entire story is BS. Gray did not own Bobby, but rather the dog was part of a group of cemetery dogs who would spend their time in graveyards as visitors, believing them to be waiting for their dead owners, would feed them.

Above is an example of a grave which has been protected against being dug up and having the body stolen for medical students. I still maintain that if you read between the lines, the main reason was zombies.

The grave of William McGonagall, the (apparently atrocious) Scottish poet who gave JK the inspiration for the name of Minerva McGonagall. Allegedly she would wander around the graveyard during her lunch breaks, reading the stones.

The council is undertaking a survey of all the graveyards in the city for safety, so any tombstones which are felt to be unstable have been laid down on the ground. While it isn't so bad in this particular graveyard, I have seen a couple that look like they have fallen victim to an especially vicious windstorm.

Photo credit: Melissa

While it took us a while to locate, we also found the grave of the man who gave his name to the infamous Tom Riddle.

There was a group of people hanging out at this end of the graveyard drinking. It was rather strange. They were harassing everyone taking pictures, and as we were leaving one of them complemented me on my hair, which prompted the group as a whole to serenade me with "Purple Rain".

We once again ended up at the Elephant House, where I had a totally awesome hot chocolate and a slice of almond and marzipan cake (yum!).

As I mentioned previously, the Elephant House is famous for being the most well-known location where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. I had heard the bathrooms were a sight, but I wasn't quite prepared for what was inside...

Every bit of the wall (and some of the ceiling) was covered. I've got a sharpie in my purse now, so I'm prepared for next time I'm in the cafe... I just need to decide what to write.

Photo credit: Melissa

Finally, the view from the Elephant's House window... the descriptions of Hogwarts Castle make so much sense now, don't they?

All in all, a lovely Sunday.