Canongate Kirkyard

The iron gate of Canongate Kirkyard stands between the seventeenth century Tolbooth and the busy street, marked by the stone crest of the Canongate burgh. This burial ground contains the remains of Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations. After Smith died in seventeen ninety, his friends found he had given away nearly all his income to charity in secret. He requested a simple grave, but today a tall, plain monument marks the spot where the man who defined modern economics rests.