The Old Town Cemetery/Valley Cemetery, Stirling

There’s been a burial ground around the Church of the Holy Rude since 1129 but many of the members of the city were buried beneath the church floor until the practice was stopped in 1623 – because of the stench of the rotting corpses! The Valley Cemetery was opened in 1857 for the overflow of the church and the town of Stirling as a whole. It was designed to be an attractive place to visit with paths wide enough for carriages. It expanded so much that it spread into what became known as Mars Place Cemetery. This in turn lead to the adjoining cemetery coming to be known as The Old Town Cemetery.

What’s most interesting about the cemetery is that the area was once used for Royal tournaments and markets. It is also, supposedly, the location of Scotland’s first fireworks display, organised by Mary, Queen of Scots to celebrate her son’s baptism. This same son, James VI, who was obsessed to put it mildly with witches, would later go on to order the deaths of those accused of performing witchcraft; those in Stirling would have been brought here, strangled to death and then their bodies burned.

The cemetery became something of an instruction manual on the Bible and the reformed Church of Scotland with statues of founding members of the church forming part of the route around the gravestones to act as inspiration to visitors (as today it was often more of a visitors’ attraction than a place of mourning).

There are a lot of interesting monuments in the cemetery. The one that probably stands out the most is this known as The Star Pyramid. Added to the site in the 1860s its enclosed behind railings. On each side of the pyramid is a carved Bible with different Biblical texts and apparently a Bible was also sealed inside the pyramid when it was built. The pyramid was commissioned by a well known Stirling family and dedicated to those who died in the cause of religious freedom in Scotland.

And then there’s this monument which really stands out amongst all the grey gravestones. It’s called the Martyrs’ Monument and depicts an angel protecting Margaret Wilson who is reading the Bible to her sister Agnes. Margaret along with her sister and another women were arrested and put on trial on charges of rebellion against the king (James VII) after refusing to denounce the Covenanters (Scottish Presbyterians who pledged to defend their faith against interference by the monarch). They were found guilty and though Agnes at 13 was spared, her sister was 18 and Margaret McLachlan, described as an elderly widow, were tied to stakes and drowned in the Solway Firth. A rather beautiful if ostentatious monument to a terribly sad story.

Some other sculptures/graves that caught my eye are below.

Definitely worth a visit if you’re visiting Stirling Castle or the Church of the Holy Rude, it’s completely free to wander around.