A 17th-century graveyard around a Reformation church
Greyfriars Kirkyard is a burial ground beside Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh's Old Town, still open to visitors today.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 600–1919
The short answer
Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, is a burial ground established in 1562 on the site of a dissolved Franciscan friary, beside Greyfriars Kirk, where the National Covenant was signed in 1638. It holds around 750 gravestones over an estimated 100,000 burials, including Covenanter prisoners, grave-robbery victims protected by mortsafes, and the dog Bobby.
Greyfriars Bobby's Bar — 2004 · Peter Langsdale · CC BY-SA 2.0
1562 to 1638
A new graveyard rose on a dissolved friary's ground
Greyfriars Kirkyard is a 17th-century graveyard around Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, now a working churchyard open to visitors. It covers the ground where a Franciscan friary once stood, dissolved at the Scottish Reformation in 1559. The friars wore gray habits, which is where the name Greyfriars comes from.
Edinburgh's old burial ground at St Giles' Cathedral had become overcrowded and unsanitary. In April 1561, the city council voted to open a new one. Mary, Queen of Scots granted royal approval in August 1562, and Greyfriars Kirkyard began taking burials soon after. St Giles' churchyard stopped being used around 1600.
The church itself went up between 1602 and 1620, the first new church built in Edinburgh after the Reformation. It opened on Christmas Day, 1620. In 1638, the National Covenant was signed before its pulpit, a document opposing King Charles I's changes to Scottish worship. The signing began the Covenanting movement and helped trigger the Bishops' Wars between Scotland and England.
1679
Covenanter prisoners were penned in a field here
In 1679, government forces defeated a Covenanter army at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. About 1,200 prisoners were marched to Edinburgh. There was no room for them in the castle or the prison, so the authorities penned them into a field south of the kirkyard.
The prisoners had little food and no shelter, and some died there. Others were executed, and some escaped or won release by signing bonds of loyalty to the crown. The area became known as the Covenanters' Prison. A monument to the executed Covenanters went up in 1729, standing in the yard today.
By the 18th century, grave robbery had become a serious problem at Greyfriars. Edinburgh's medical schools paid for fresh corpses to dissect, and resurrection men dug up the recently buried to sell them. Iron cages called mortsafes were fitted over new graves to stop them, and some still stand in the yard.
1740 to 1845
A loyal dog kept vigil here for fourteen years
John Gray, a night watchman, died of tuberculosis in 1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. John Gray's Skye Terrier, Bobby, kept vigil at the grave for 14 years, until Bobby's own death in 1872. The Dog Aid Society of Scotland placed a granite headstone for Bobby at the gate in 1981.
The same century brought fire. In 1845, a blaze tore through Greyfriars Kirk, destroying the roof and the furnishings inside. The church was rebuilt in the Victorian style that followed. A gunpowder explosion had already forced rebuilding of its west end back in 1718.
1912 to 1929
A divided congregation merged and tore down its wall
In 1912, more than a thousand people signed the Ulster Covenant inside the kirk, opposing home rule for Ireland. The two congregations sharing the building, Old Greyfriars and New Greyfriars, merged in 1929, and workers pulled down the wall that had divided the church in two.
around 1990 to now
A locked prison yard is now toured by guides
By the late 20th century, the old Covenanters' Prison section had become a target for vandalism and drug use. The City of Edinburgh Council locked it around 1990. Visitors can still see it on a guided walk, and the Black Mausoleum, the burial vault of George Mackenzie, sits inside it. Mackenzie was the Lord Advocate who prosecuted the Covenanters held in that same field two centuries before. Guides tell visitors his spirit haunts the enclosure, and that people have been scratched, knocked down, or struck by sudden cold near his tomb.
The kirkyard holds around 750 gravestones over an estimated 100,000 burials, the result of centuries of reuse on the same ground. Among the names are the architect James Craig, who designed Edinburgh's New Town, and the geologist James Hutton, often called the father of modern geology.
J. K. Rowling lived near the kirkyard while writing her first novels, and she borrowed at least five names from its gravestones, including a family stone marked Potter.
Greyfriars Kirkyard remains a working churchyard in Edinburgh's Old Town, open to visitors by day.
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Medieval
AD 600 to AD 973
Radiocarbon samples taken within a few hundred meters of this spot date to between AD 600 and AD 973, among the oldest dated human traces found around this ground.
Colin MacLaurin, Joseph Black, Allan Ramsay, William McGonagall, and James Hutton are among the many scientists, poets, and historians buried within yards of this spot in Greyfriars Kirkyard.
In August 1621 Edinburgh's town council forced candlemakers off the High Street because of the fire risk and stench of their trade, resettling them on what became Candlemaker Row.
After their defeat at Bothwell Bridge in 1679, roughly 1,200 Covenanters were imprisoned for months with little food or shelter in what became known as the Covenanters' Prison, beside the kirkyard.
Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate who prosecuted the Covenanters, was buried in 1691 in the domed mausoleum that still stands near the prison he helped fill.
Body snatchers, including Burke and Hare, regularly raided fresh graves at Greyfriars between the 1740s and 1832 to sell corpses for dissection, which is why iron mortsafes still sit among the stones.
William Lamb, an armless street musician living with Agnes White at 88 Candlemaker Row, killed her in 1919 after one of their frequent drunken quarrels.
The ground held a Franciscan friary, whose grey-habited monks gave the place its name, before the friary was dissolved at the Scottish Reformation in 1559 and the land was later granted as a burial ground in 1562.
What happened at the Covenanters' Prison in Greyfriars?
About 1,200 Covenanter prisoners captured after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 were held in a field beside the kirkyard with little food or shelter; some died there, others were executed, and some escaped or signed loyalty bonds.
Why are there iron cages over some graves at Greyfriars?
Iron mortsafes were fitted over new graves because resurrection men dug up freshly buried bodies to sell to Edinburgh's medical schools for dissection, a problem that lasted from the 1740s into the 1830s.
Who is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard?
Burials include the architect James Craig, the geologist James Hutton, the policeman John Gray and his dog Bobby, and Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate who prosecuted the Covenanters, in the Black Mausoleum.
Is there a connection between Greyfriars Kirkyard and Harry Potter?
J. K. Rowling lived near the kirkyard while writing her first novels and borrowed at least five names from its gravestones, including a family stone marked Potter.
Why was Greyfriars Kirk rebuilt in the Victorian style?
A fire in 1845 destroyed the roof and furnishings of the church, requiring a rebuild; an earlier gunpowder explosion in 1718 had already forced reconstruction of its west end.
