The Gatehouse

The Gatehouse at the entrance to the Old Calton Burial Ground features a distinctive pair of heavy, iron-studded wooden doors set into a classical stone arch. Built in eighteen twenty-seven, this structure was meant to guard the dead against body snatchers who raided fresh graves to sell corpses to Edinburgh medical schools. During the night, local watchmen sat in the small room above the gate, keeping a loaded musket and a lantern ready to ward off anyone attempting to disturb the soil.