Old Calton Cemetery

Old Calton Burial Ground is marked by a tall, tapering obelisk that pierces the skyline of Calton Hill. Established in seventeen eighteen by the Society of the Incorporated Trades of Calton, the graveyard sits on the slopes above Waterloo Place. It grew out of a local need for a cemetery closer to the community than the distant parish church in Leith. In eighteen nineteen, the construction of Waterloo Place carved the grounds into two distinct sections, leaving the stone walls to frame the site today.