The Wildlife of Edinburgh's Cemeteries

Exploring nature in the city's burial grounds

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's post on Crafty Green Poet. It’s a long post, with lots of photos, so it may be too long to read in email, but you can read it in full here.

Last week, while attending the committee meeting of the friends group of the local cemetery (North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh), I realised that cemetery wildlife would be a good topic for this post.

I was one of the founding members of this cemetery friends group, which was set up when COVID restrictions started to be relaxed. People had been discovering their local cemeteries during their 'daily exercise' sessions and wanted to protect these urban green oases.

North Merchiston Cemetery is one of the Victorian Garden cemeteries in Edinburgh, it is effectively full and you can only be buried there if you have an existing family plot. This means that the cemetery is rarely used for burials and is managed very much with wildlife in mind.

My involvement with the cemetery friends group lead, a couple of years ago, to me being asked to carry out wildlife surveys of all the cemeteries managed by Edinburgh City Council, which include Church of Scotland kirkyards (churchyards) as well as purpose built cemeteries with no attachment to a church (the city also has three or four cemeteries that are privately managed and at least one churchyard that's managed by an Episcopalian church.)

What follows is an edited version of a talk I've given about my cemetery wildlife surveys.

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I've been amazed by the variety of wildlife I've found in Edinburgh's cemeteries and kirkyards, from fascinating fungi and magnificent mosses to spectacular Sparrowhawks and huge numbers of insects, including lots of ladybirds! Cemeteries managed by Edinburgh Council include historical kirkyards, Victorian garden cemeteries and modern cemeteries. Most of them support a variety of wildlife and some are specifically managed with wildlife in mind. I just want to give an overview of some of my wildlife encounters in these burial grounds.

Grey squirrels are common in many cemeteries, but especially in South Leith Kirkyard, which is over-run with them (because someone feeds them every day)! An albino Grey Squirrel regularly visited North Merchiston a couple of years ago.

Apart from Grey Squirrels, mammals are relatively hard to see in cemeteries, small mammals such as mice, voles and rats tend to stay hidden. Badgers are nocturnal so you're not likely to see them but they are known to visit Warriston Cemetery. Roe deer

often wander through Craigmillar Castle Cemetery the newest in Edinburgh (established 2009.) Every time I've visited this cemetery, I've been given a guided tour by a friendly black and white cat which apparently feeds on rabbits that visit the cemetery.

There are notices in this and other cemeteries, warning people that rabbits may eat the flowers laid on graves.

Birds are much more obvious around the cemeteries. Sparrowhawks nest in North Merchiston Cemetery, as Great Spotted Woodpeckers also used to nest there, though they haven’t nested there for a couple of years. The chicks were very entertaining and became a bit of an attraction for cemetery visitors during COVID lockdown, I think people’s enthusiasm to get close to the nest site may be the reason the woodpeckers no longer nest in the cemetery (the photo below was taken with a long lens).

Kestrels sometimes visit Dalry Cemetery, probably the same birds that hunt alongside the nearby Western Approach Road. Jackdaws nest in high numbers in and around Corstorphine Hill Cemetery - they're entertaining (and noisy!) to watch when the chicks first leave the nest and follow the parents around, begging for food, and I've no idea why I didn't take photos of them.

Warriston Cemetery was the first of the Victorian garden cemeteries to be built in the city (in 1843).

Warriston is one of five cemeteries that lie alongside the Water of Leith. Part of this cemetery is officially a nature reserve and featured on the BBC Winterwatch programme in 2023. Warriston, like all the garden cemeteries, is full of nesting birds, including blue tits, robins and many others. But spend any time in almost any of the city's cemeteries and you're likely to see at least a few common birds.

Now famous for its Harry Potter connections and the tale of Greyfriars Bobby, (the faithful dog who spent 14 years guarding his owner's grave) Greyfriars Kirkyard was the first burial ground in Edinburgh, established in 1562 on ground that had been used as a herb garden by Franciscan friars. The herb garden was re-established in 2008 by the Grassmarket Community Project and includes culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. This is one of the best cemeteries in Edinburgh to find ladybirds! Ladybirds, like the Orange Ladybirds in the photo below,

love hibernating on gravestones, specially on gravestones under the trees where the ladybirds have spent the summer.

A couple of years ago, I took part in a podcast about ladybirds in cemeteries.

Many other species of insects can be found in cemeteries, most noticeably butterflies. I was particularly happy to find this Wall Butterfly in Portobello Cemetery, as it's quite uncommon in Edinburgh.

Moths are generally far less easy to see as most of them are nocturnal. A couple of years ago I saw green longhorn moths in North Merchiston cemetery.

Hoverflies are commonly found in cemeteries, I've seen 26 species of hoverfly in North Merchiston Cemetery alone (having spent a lot of time in there during lockdown!). The other insects worth mentioning are bees, several species of bumblebees can be found in cemeteries.

Where there are insects, there are usually spiders and cemeteries are no different! Spiders' webs are more often seen than the creatures themselves.

Many cemeteries in Edinburgh have plenty of mature trees. Grange Cemetery has a tree trail, with information boards alongside some of the most interesting trees in the cemetery. This is one of the few places anywhere to find a Corstorphine Sycamore, a rare subspecies of sycamore, originally only found in Corstorphine, there's also one in Corstorphine Parish Kirkyard.

A sad thing to see in many cemeteries is the number of Ash trees that are suffering from Ash Dieback disease, which caused by a fungus and is decimating ash trees. Affected trees are being removed from cemeteries and other sites around Edinburgh.

Two of the city's cemeteries have woodland burial sites. Mortonhall (see photo25) and Corstorphine Hill (see photo26). Both these are areas where people can choose to be buried in a more natural woodland habitat. The woodland burial sites are particularly rich in wildflowers growing under the trees. Several other cemeteries have designated wildflower areas, like this at Craigmillar Castle Park Cemetery (photo27) or have various flowers growing around the site. As the year progresses, different flowers come into bloom. In the summer, one of the most striking flowers is Wild Carrot (photo30), which can be found in Comely Bank Cemetery and the grounds of Mortonhall Crematorium. Wild carrot is a favourite food of the Batman Hoverfly (photo31).

Many different species of mosses grow on gravestones and trees in cemeteries. I found this perfect specimen of Grimmia

in Liberton Cemetery, which is one of several cemeteries that are made up of a historic kirkyard and a more modern cemetery extension. Lots of species of lichens also grow in cemeteries (lichens are made up of a fungus and an alga that grow together). Most lichens are sensitive to air pollution and it's noticeable that the further away from the city centre the cemetery is, the greater the number of lichens it contains. Sunburst lichen is found in most cemeteries and is easy to identify, though it's not always as yellow as it appears here.

The British Lichen Society has a web-page devoted to Churchyard Lichens.

In Autumn, many cemeteries are excellent places for discovering fungi. Mortonhall is particularly good for fungi, as is Morningside Cemetery which is where I found this Parrot Waxcap, which is very unusual in being a green fungus!

Waxcaps are a group of fungi that are relatively rare and the grassland areas of cemeteries are amongst the most important habitats for them.

If you're interested in finding out more about Edinburgh's cemeteries, scroll down on this page on the council's website, to find links to virtual tours of several of the cemeteries.

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Caring for God's Acre is a charity dedicated to the preservation of churchyards and cemeteries in the UK.

Recommended Books about Cemeteries

Earth to Earth by Stefan Buczacki, illustrated by Felicity Price-Smith, published Unicorn Press (2018) is a beautiful book about the wildlife of cemeteries.

Scottish Kirkyards by Dane Love, published by Robert Hale (1989) and republished by Amberley (2010) is a fascinating look at the history of burial grounds in Scotland.

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New Campaign for Wildlife

Scotland Loves Nature is a new campaign, organised by over 40 Scottish conservation and wildlife groups, championing the need for legally binding nature targets in Scotland.