Dean Cemetery

The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on its west by the Dean Gallery. A 20th-century extension lies detached from the main cemetery to the north of Ravelston Terrace. The main cemetery is accessible through the main gate on its east side, through a "grace and favour" access door from the grounds of Dean Gallery and from Ravelston Terrace. The modern extension is only accessible at the junction of Dean Path and Queensferry Road.

The cemetery Dean Cemetery, originally known as Edinburgh Western Cemetery, was laid out by David Cousin (an Edinburgh architect who also laid out Warriston Cemetery) in 1846 and was a fashionable burial ground for mainly the middle and upper-classes. The many monuments bear witness to Scottish achievement in peace and war, at home and abroad and are a rich source of Edinburgh and Victorian history.

As the cemetery plots were quickly bought up the cemetery was extended on its north side in 1871.Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh by Gifford McWilliam and Walker A second set of entrance gates were built on Dean Path, matching the original entrance. Although this section was originally only accessed through this gate the extension was quickly linked to the original section by creating gaps in the mutual wall where no graves existed.

The separated section north of Ravelston Terrace (previously Edgehill NurseryOrdnance Survey 1851 : Edinburgh) was purchased in 1877 in anticipation of a sales rate matching that of the original cemetery, but this was not to be, and the area only began to be used in 1909 (excepting John Ritchie Findlay (1898) alone for a decade). This section is relatively plain and generally unremarkable, but does include a line of Scottish judges against the north wall, perhaps trying to echo the "Lord's Row" against the west wall of the original cemetery. Whilst numerically greater in its number of lords it is far less eye-catching.

The entire cemetery is privately owned by the Dean Cemetery Trust Limited, making it one of the few cemeteries still run as it was intended to be run. The resultant layout, with its mature designed landscape, can be seen as an excellent example of a cemetery actually being visible in the form it was conceived to be seen.

The southern access from Belford Road is now blocked and the entrance road here is now grassed and used for the interment of ashes.

The cemetery contains sculpture by Sir John Steell, William Brodie, John Hutchison, Francis John Williamson, Pilkington Jackson, Amelia Robertson Hill, William Birnie Rhind, John Rhind, John Stevenson Rhind, William Grant Stevenson, Henry Snell Gamley, Charles McBride, George Frampton, Waller Hugh Paton and Stewart McGlashan.

Dean House

The cemetery stands on the site of Dean House (built 1614), part of Dean Estate which had been purchased in 1609 by Sir William Nisbet, who became in 1616 Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The Nisbets of Dean held the office of Hereditary Poulterer to the King. The famous herald, Alexander Nisbet, of Nisbet House, near Duns, Scottish Borders, Berwickshire, is said to have written his Systems of Heraldry in Dean House. The estate house was demolished in 1845, and sculptured stones from it are incorporated into the south retaining wall supporting at the south side of the cemetery. This lower, hidden section also contains graves.

John Swinton, Lord Swinton died in the house in 1799. Sir John Stuart Hepburn Forbes was born in Dean House in 1804.

Notable interments

Original cemetery "N" denotes location in the first northern extension. "LR" denotes location in the Lords Row.

The 5th Baron Abercromby (1841–1924) Lord Adam (1824–1914), Senator of the College of Justice (N) Sir James Ormiston Affleck (1840–1922), physician and author (N) Sir Stair Agnew (1831–1916) Rev David Aitken (1796–1875), church historian John Aitken (1793–1833), Scottish journalist and editor (LR) Robert Alexander (1840–1923), artist Sir Archibald Alison (d. 1867), advocate and historian, plus his son, Sir Archibald Alison (LR) Robert Allan (1806–1863), mineralogist Sir Robert George Allan (1879–1972), agriculturalist Major General William Allan (1832–1918), a general in the Crimean War Sir William Allan (1782–1850), artist John Anderson (1833–1900), sculpted by David Watson Stevenson Thomas Anderson (1832–1870), botanist Thomas Annandale (1838–1907), medical pioneer and surgeon (N) Neil Arnott Royal Society of London (1788–1874), physician Lena Ashwell, Lady Simson (1869–1957), English actress Prof William Edmondstoune Aytoun (1813–1865), poet Henry Bellyse Baildon (1849–1907), poet and author Dr John William Ballantyne (1861–1923), founder of the science of antenatal pathology William Francis Beattie (1886–1918), sculptor William Hamilton Beattie (1842–1898), architect (including Jenner's and the Balmoral Hotel) Dr John Beddoe (1826–1911), ethnologist Dr James Warburton Begbie (1826–1876), physician (N) Archibald Bell (1776–1854), author and advocate Dr Joseph Bell (1837–1911), lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh, personal surgeon of Queen Victoria John Bellany (1942–2013), artist Dr John Hughes Bennett (1812–1875), physiologist Isabella Bird, married name Bishop (1831–1904), traveller, writer and photographer. First female Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Alexander Black (1797–1858), architect Alexander William Black MP (1859–1906) Rev. James Black (d. 1948), Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1938 and Chaplain to the King Robert Blackburn, Lord Blackburn (1864–1944), Senator of the College of Justice (N) John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895) John Blackwood (1818–1879), publisher and editor of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Rev Dr Robert Blair (1837–1907) (N) Thomas Bonnar (father (d. 1873) and son (d. 1896), a back-to-back monument by David Watson Stevenson), artists, decorators and designers Cunninghame Borthwick, 19th Lord Borthwick (1813–1885) Sir Thomas Bouch (1822–1880), railway engineer, designer of the original Tay Rail Bridge Samuel Bough, artist, (1822–1878) (monument by William Brodie, 1879) Admiral James Paterson Bower (1806–1889) and his son Major General Hamilton St Clair Bower (1858–1940) (N) Prof Francis Darby Boyd (1866–1922), Professor of Clinical Medicine at Edinburgh University Mary Syme Boyd (1910–1997), sculptor Sir Thomas Jamieson Boyd (1818–1902), Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1877–82 (N) Sir Byrom Bramwell (1847–1921), brain surgeon Edwin Bramwell (1873–1952), brain surgeon (N) Sir John Clerk Brodie (1811–1888), monument by John Hutchison (including his son Thomas Dawson Brodie) (LR) William Brodie (1815–1881) Agnes Henderson Brown (1866–1943), suffragette Andrew Betts Brown (1841–1906), engineer and inventor, co-founder of Brown Brothers & Co (N) James Buchanan and Jane Buchanan, philanthropists John Young Buchanan (1844–1925), oceanographer Thomas Stuart Burnett (1853–1888), sculptor Dr John Graham MacDonald Burt (1809–1868), President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Samuel Butcher (1850–1910), professor of Greek at Edinburgh University, President of the British Academy, Liberal Unionist MP for Cambridge University (N) Florence St John Cadell (1877–1966), artist (N) Francis Cadell (1883–1937), Scottish colourist, his actress sister Jean Cadell (1884–1967) and great-nephew, comedy actor Simon Cadell (1950–1996), star of Enemy at the Door and Hi-de-Hi! Prof Francis Mitchell Caird (1853–1926), President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1912–14 (N) Edward and James Key Caird, Dundee jute barons and philanthropists Major Donald Fraser Callander (1918–1992), soldier General Sir John Campbell of the East India Company Richard Vary Campbell (1840–1901), legal author (N) James Carswell (1832–1897), civil engineer, designer of Queen Street Station, Glasgow, and the approaches to the Forth Rail Bridge (N) James Cassie RSA (1819–1879), artist (N) Sir David Patrick Chalmers (1835–1899), colonial judge (N) George Paul Chalmers (1838–1878), artist Robert Chambers (1832–1888), publisher of dictionaries and encyclopedia Prof John Chiene (1843–1923), surgeon Henry Martyn Clark (1887–1916), missionary Lord Cockburn (1779–1854) John Campbell Colquhoun (1803–1870), writer George Somervil Carfrae (1854–1934), civil engineer (N) Dr John G. S. Coghill (1834–1899), physician and medical author George Combe (1788–1858), lawyer and phrenologist Charles Alfred Cooper (1829–1916), editor of The Scotsman newspaper Sir Joseph Montagu Cotterill (1851–1933), surgeon and cricketer, son of Henry Cotterill Rev George Coventry (1791–1872), (LR) Lord Cowan (1798–1878), Senator of the College of Justice (LR) Robert Cox (1810–1872), medallion head by William Brodie Robert Cox MP (1845–1899) Sir James Coxe (1811–1878), psychiatrist, Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland Dr Kenneth Craik (1914–1945) Francis Chalmers Crawford (1851–1908), botanist Rev Prof Thomas Jackson Crawford (1812–1875), theologian and author Robert Croall (1831–1898), coach- and post-master Prof John Halliday Croom (1847–1923), physician Lord Cullen (1859–1931) Prof Daniel John Cunningham (1850–1909) with his Dublin-born son, General Sir Alan Cunningham (1887–1983) Robert James Blair Cunynghame (1841–1903), forensic scientist and physiologist Allen Dalzell (1821–1869), pharmacologist Dr Robert Daun (1785–1871), military surgeon (LR) Marcus Dods (1834–1909), theologian Dr Andrew Halliday Douglas (1819–1908), President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and his namesake son, Rev. Prof. A.H. Douglas (d. 1902), author and Professor of Apologetic at Know College, Toronto Francis Brown Douglas DL (1814–1885), Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1859–62 Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822–1891), PRSA artist Bishop John Dowden (1840–1910), Bishop of Edinburgh Thomas Drybrough (1820–1894), brewer Finlay Dun (1795–1853), musician and composer John Duncan (surgeon) (1839–1899), President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1889–91 Henry Dunlop of Craigton (1799–1867), Lord Provost of Glasgow 1837 to 1840 James Dunsmure (1814–1886), President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn (1889–1964), psychiatrist Dr James Duncan (1810–1866) and his son, Dr John Duncan (1839–1899) James Faed (1821–1911), artist Rev Valentine Faithfull (1820–1894), clergyman and cricketer Sir James Falshaw (1810–1889), Lord Provost (N) Vice Admiral Charles Fellowes (1823–1880) (N) James Haig Ferguson (1863–1934), President of both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (N) Richard Findlay (1943–2017), broadcaster and media magnate Rev Robert Howie Fisher (1861–1934), minister and author, Chaplain to the King Lord Fleming (1877–1944), military hero and judge James Simpson Fleming (1828–1899) Prof John Fleming (1785–1857) Prof Edward Forbes (1815–1854), naturalist Prof James David Forbes (1809–1868), inventor of the seismometer Sir Patrick Johnston Ford, Baronet, MP (1880–1945) Major-General James George Roche Forlong (1824–1904), soldier and engineer Sir John Forrest, Baronet (1817–1883), with Sir William Forrest (1823–1894) and Sir James Forrest (1853–1899) William Hope Fowler (1876–1933), x-ray pioneer, victim of his own experiments (N) Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser (1848–1919) Dr John Fraser (1844–1925), Commissioner of Lunacy in Scotland 1895–1910 Lord Fraser (1817–1889), jurist Patrick Neill Fraser, (d. 1905), botanist (plus a cenotaph to his daughter Margaret Neill Fraser, buried in Serbia during the First World War) Thomas Richard Fraser (1841–1920), pathologist (N) Sir William Fraser (1816–1898)