Watchtower built to monitor body snatchers needs repair
A watchtower situated in one of Edinburgh’s city centre cemeteries would be turned into an events and exhibition space under new plans.
An application to transform the building, in the New Calton Burial Ground, will be considered by the city council’s culture and communities committee today.
The B-listed watchtower was originally built in the 19th century to guard against body snatchers. The repair costs to turn it into a usable exhibition space have been put at between £150,000 and £175,000.
A report to the council states: “This report recommends that committee agree in principle that officers proceed with… the refurbishment of the watchtower, to deliver urgent and necessary repairs to the watchtower, including works to allow occasional use of the watchtower’s ground floor as an events/exhibition space.”
It added: “The watchtower is a three-storey circular sandstone building dating from 1820, located on the western side of the New Calton Burial Ground in the city centre. The burial ground straddles parts of both the New Town and Old Town conservation areas. From the early 18th century to the early 19th century, graverobbing to satisfy the demands of Edinburgh’s medical schools was commonplace.”
The watchtower is on the Buildings At Risk Register managed by Historic Environment Scotland. Plans for its repair have been mooted for the best part of a decade, as part of a wider proposal to protect some of Edinburgh’s historic cemeteries, including the final resting places of the philosopher David Hume, poet Robert Fergusson and economist Adam Smith.