The Howff is a burial ground in the city of Dundee, Scotland. Established in 1564, it has one of the most important collections of tombstones in Scotland, and is protected as a category A listed building. [1]
The majority of graves face exactly due east.
The land of the burial ground was part of the Franciscan (Greyfriars) Monastery until the Scottish Reformation. In 1564 Mary, Queen of Scots granted the land to the burgh of Dundee, for use as a burial ground. It was used for meetings by the Dundee Incorporated Trades, and subsequently became known as The Howff, from the Scots word howff 'an enclosed open space, yard, area (as a timber yard)', likely related to German or Dutch hof 'enclosed space, courtyard'. [2] Old parish records for burials within The Howff begin in the late 18th century. Prior to this records of mortcloth hire, a cloth rented out by the Guildry and Trades to cover bodies or coffins before burial, provide evidence of burials dating back to 1655. [3] Meetings at The Howff ceased in 1776. [1] The last burial took place in 1878 (George Duncan). The walls along the west side date from 1601. [4]
The vault to the extreme south west (now simply saying "Blackness" inside) was the burial Vault of the Wedderburns of Blackness House in Dundee. A sealed window on its exterior appears to indicate this was either a watch-house or part of the original meeting-house prior to the vault being built (c.1630).
The graveyard is highly unusual by Scottish standards, containing a high number of Roman-style coffer tombs. It also contains a high number of inscriptions which philosophise on death itself rather than discussing the person interred.
Of the 80,000 burials in the Howff around 3% are classed as "foreign" but with many simply bearing this label due to birth at sea, reflecting Dundee's maritime heritage. As an odder distinction, some 10% of the deaths are specifically recorded as "Irish burials", largely labourers in the early 19th century. [5]
Burials at The Howff include:
In 1834 a new cemetery, which was known as the New Howff, was opened on what was then the northern edge of the town on the lower slopes of Dundee Law. This cemetery, which was influenced by Glasgow Necropolis, was more or less destroyed by later building works. Firstly the construction of Dundee's inner ring road in the 1960s cut through the site, and this was followed by the erection of a multi-storey car park over the New Hoff's southern end. Some grave stones were saved and positioned against its western wall which had originally been the boundary between the cemetery and the Dundee and Newtyle Railway. [7]
The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private school in Dundee.
Greyfriars Kirk is a parish church of the Church of Scotland, located in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is surrounded by Greyfriars Kirkyard.
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland with a population of around 150,000 people. It is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Tay on the east coast of the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The Dundee area has been settled since the Mesolithic with evidence of Pictish habitation beginning in the Iron Age. During the Medieval Era the city became a prominent trading port and was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
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The Old Calton Burial Ground is a cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It located at Calton Hill to the north-east of the city centre. The burial ground was opened in 1718, and is the resting place of several notable Scots, including philosopher David Hume, scientist John Playfair, rival publishers William Blackwood and Archibald Constable, and clergyman Dr Robert Candlish. It is also the site of the Political Martyrs' Monument, an obelisk erected to the memory of a number of political reformers, and Scotland's American Civil War Memorial.
Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a number of notable Edinburgh residents are interred at Greyfriars. The Kirkyard is operated by City of Edinburgh Council in liaison with a charitable trust, which is linked to but separate from the church. The Kirkyard and its monuments are protected as a category A listed building.
Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, (1704-1746) was a Perthshire gentleman who joined the 1745 rebellion of Charles Edward Stuart. He was captured at the Battle of Culloden, taken to London, and convicted of treason. He was hanged, his estates were forfeit to the Crown, and his family was attainted. The Blackness in his title is Blackness House in Dundee rather than Blackness in Lothian just west of Edinburgh. His son John Wedderburn of Ballindean fled after his father's death to Jamaica, where he re-established the family's fortunes via slave sugar, and eventually regained his father's title.
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William Trotter of Ballindean JP DL (1772–1833) was a Scottish cabinet-maker who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1825 to 1827.
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Sir George Haliburton, Lord Fodderance (c.1580–1649) was a 17th-century Scottish judge and Senator of the College of Justice.
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Alexander Riddoch DL was a Scottish merchant who served eight non-consecutive terms as Provost of Dundee. His nicknames included the "Old Hawk". "The Gudeman of Blacklunans" and "Archdeacon of the Self-Elected".
Samuel Bell (1739–1813) was a Scottish architect mainly associated with the town of Dundee. He was the prime shaper of the city centre and in particular the Nethergate.
The Collegiate Church of St Mary in the Fields was a pre-Reformation collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. Likely founded in the 13th century and secularised at the Reformation, the church's site is now covered by Old College.
Greyfriars Burial Ground is an historic cemetery in Perth, Scotland, dating to 1580. It is now Category A listed.
The timeline of Dundee history shows the significant events in the history of Dundee, Scotland.
The Observant Order of Greyfriars was a friary of the Franciscan Order located in the Scottish city of Perth. It was founded by Laurence Oliphant, 1st Lord Oliphant, in 1496 and destroyed on 11 May 1559 following the Scottish Reformation, started by John Knox in his sermon at Perth's St John's Kirk, just a few hundred yards to the north.
Media related to The Howff at Wikimedia Commons
Cemeteries in Scotland | ||||
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| Argyll and Bute |  | |||
| Dundee | ||||
| East Dunbartonshire | ||||
| East Renfrewshire | ||||
| Edinburgh | ||||
| Falkirk | ||||
| Glasgow | ||||
| Highland | ||||
| Midlothian | ||||
| Perth and Kinross | ||||
