Graveyards of Glasgow: the Necropolis

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Glasgow Necropolis, Scotland’s first garden cemetery, opened in 1833 on the hilly site of the former Fir Park, a location which gives a pleasing tiered view. At the bottom of the hill is Glasgow Cathedral, and the top is dominated by the 12 ft statue of John Knox on its 58 ft column. Knox, the most prominent figure of the Scottish Reformation, is not buried here: the statue predates the Necropolis by several years.

Glasgow Cathedral and Royal Infirmary from the Necropolis
John Knox statue in Glasgow Necropolis
John Knox always visible!
Glasgow Necropolis
Glasgow Necropolis (Monteath Mausoleum)

I have featured Glasgow Necropolis several times before – it’s a favourite place to wander, and is one of the Glasgow Women’s Library Heritage Walks that I help to lead in more normal years. However, there’s always something new to discover and my files are full of unused photographs of favourite graves. It won’t surprise you to know that many of them tell a women’s heritage story, and most of them are in GWL’s walk – here are a few which aren’t (but which might be in the future).

Margaret Montgomerie

Glasgow Necropolis: Margaret Montgomerie
Glasgow Necropolis: Margaret Montgomerie

This beautiful Gothic monument, modelled on Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster, was commissioned by Matthew Montgomerie in 1842 for his wife Margaret. Originally, it was adorned by Mossman sculptures of Hope and Resignation which have since disappeared. Poor Margaret (like many women alive in his time, including Mary Queen of Scots) cannot escape the scrutiny of John Knox who looks down on her from above.

Frances Phillips and Miss Cates

Glasgow Necropolis: Frances Phillips and Miss Cates
Glasgow Necropolis: Frances Phillips and Miss Cates

Miss Cates became the second wife of solicitor and travel writer William Rae Wilson, to whom she erected this mausoleum in 1849. It’s built in Moorish-style with inverted torches carved on the outside, symbolic of death and resurrection. Miss Cates is also buried here, but I can find no further information about her, other than that she was “an English lady of good family”. The inscription merely records her as William’s affectionate wife. The tomb’s third occupant is William’s first wife, Frances Phillips. I wonder who he chose to spend the afterlife with?

Eliza Jane Aikman

Glasgow Necropolis: Eliza Jane Aikman
Glasgow Necropolis: Eliza Jane Aikman

Eliza Jane Aikman (1852-1929) was Glasgow’s first female Parish Councillor and founded the Glasgow Infant Health Visitors Association, the basis for child welfare practice. “One who went about doing good and having served her day and generation by the will of God fell on sleep”.

Helen Marshall Rough

Glasgow Necropolis: Helen Rough
Glasgow Necropolis: Helen Rough

Helen Rough, who died in 1932, was the founder of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Cooperation of Trained Nurses. We specifically went looking for her grave during lockdown after my friend and fellow tour guide, Beverly McFarlane, did some research on her which gave me a personal interest. Helen is buried here with her sister, Jane, and brother-in-law, James Bell, English Master at the High School of Glasgow. In the census of 1871 Helen is recorded in James’s household, an address which I recognised instantly as the home of my mother-in-law over a century later (she died in 1993), although by then the house was divided into flats and she occupied what would have been the drawing room floor in Helen’s time. I was delighted by this coincidence.

More information

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour of some of the lesser known women in Glasgow Necropolis.

There are several places to go for more information. GWL and the City Council have downloadable guides and maps (and another guide, Louise Bell, has done a Twitter version of GWL’s). The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis is a splendid organisation which offers guided tours and raises money to restore neglected tombs.

GWL Glasgow Necropolis Women’s Heritage Walk

Glasgow City Council Necropolis Heritage Trail

Friends of Glasgow Necropolis

Next time: the Western Necropolis.

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70 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Headstones and hidden histories | Zimmerbitch

  5. How did I miss this on my trip to Glasgow a few years back. I had hoped to make the trip back up to Scotland this year, but obviously it will have to wait. I don’t think I’m going to be able to leave Wales soon.

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  7. By the looks and sounds of it, this cemetery is humongous, Anabel! What an intriguing place for a wander. Or five! One of our daily walking options in the area includes passing through a graveyard. I love that route, as there’s rarely anyone around (we can take a break from wearing our mask) and the fall colors make the place even more gorgeous and peaceful.

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  8. First you inspired me to look for art commemorating women in Auckland, now I’m fired up to visit our cemeteries and tell some of the stories contained there.

    I find the husband and two wives grave interesting. I’ve seen one like that too, but from memory one of his mothers-in-law was buried there too. Now that would be a fun way to spend the afterlife.

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  9. I didn’t know about the Necropolis. The only cemetery I’ve really looked round is Pere Lachaise in Paris. I wanted to see Colette’s grave and hoped it would be surrounded by cats. I didn’t see the cemetery cats, maybe the Necropolis has a resident kitty. X

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  10. Anabel – What a delightful walk through the graveyard! Like a lot of people, I find them so fascinating. They are often really good reading, and a different take on history. I also wonder what the future holds for cemeteries – they take up so much space and more people are not choosing burial. Will they become a relic of the past? Cheers (!!) – Susan

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  11. I quite like cemetries myself, particularly where you can seek out tye graves of notable people – Montparnasse and Pere Lachaise in Paris are two notable favourites. But even local churchyards have their interest. Reading the gravestone inscriptions helps to build a picture of the life of ordinary people in the past.

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  12. Hi Anabel – excellent post … and what an amazing cemetery to wander around in – lots to see, try to locate and understand … history abounding. So interesting finding where your MIL lived – in the drawing room of the early owner’s house – extraordinary … but a sign of the times. What fun – thank you …

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    • Thank you, Hilary! MIL’s living room was beautiful, the original drawing room, still with all the ornate plaster work, but with a bit chopped off to make a second bedroom. Her other rooms were carved out of the rest of the floor and a bit poky, but it was the main room which made it.

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  14. Nice history tour. It’s not that long ago, 30 years or so. when it was little visited and rather dilapidated with down and outs sleeping in some of the crypts year round and a much harder atmosphere that put people off visiting. You would rarely see anyone up there then, I remember, especially tourists on their own. Now it’s rightly a major visitor attraction and much safer, probably helped by the building of St Mungo Museum in 1989/90 which really helped to raise it’s profile to a bigger audience. Looking back with hindsight that was when it changed and improved.

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    • I think that’s true about the museum stimulating interest. Even since I started doing the GWL walks in 2013 there have been huge improvements, largely thanks to the Friends who have raised money to restore tombs, including some of the ones we talk about such as the Buchanan sisters.

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  19. How lovely to have this cemetery on your doorstep as it were. When I used to visit family in Stoke Newington I invariably popped into Abney Park cemetery which is a one of the Magnificent Seven in London and a local nature park. I wish I’d kept notes on it as I don’t visit nowadays as that part of the family have moved away now. It’s strange how fascinating these places can be, more so in your case, as you can relate your historical research to the place.

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  21. Lovely. I always like walking in cemeteries and trying to imagine the life the people buried there would have had…not all of them are famous so I can let my imagination go to build a story for them. (Suzanne)

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  22. I was very interested in your research about Miss Cates. Hers was the one that fascinated me when we were there a few years ago. It has a fairy tale quality.

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  23. Good morning, Anabel (morning in my neck of the woods). Everything I have learned about Glasgow Necropolis, I have learned from you. I was never a history buff, yet you have made it fun and interesting. We recently had a discussion in our Zoom group how Women have had a great influence on our heritage here on Vancouver Island. Interesting how women were often described as someone’s wife. Thank you for the tour. Happy Thanksgiving.😊Erica

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  24. I love cemeteries and wonder about the people who lived and died. Some cemeteries in Europe are so pretty. I. Glad to have read some of these famous women. Some have helped so much which is why we have what we have now.

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  27. I, too, used to wonder about multiple spouses in the afterlife, but now that I no longer believe in such an afterlife, I no longer have to lie awake at night pondering such a problem.😁😉

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  28. Cemeteries are wonderful places to wander and feel humbled by the passage of time. Each cemetery is full of stories – if only we could hear them.

    Bloggers like you remind me of how far we have come as women, claiming our rightful place in the world as meaningful contributors beyond ‘affectionate wife’.

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  29. It is a great regret of mine that I have never visited the Necropolis. Until I was 8, we lived very near it and then when we moved out of Glasgow I just didn’t think about it. When my mum was in the Royal Infirmary I would see it out of the window every time I went to visit and thought – I must go and take a look round, but of course I didn’t. It is still on my list of things to do when life, and travelling, gets back to something more like the old normal.
    Thanks for taking us on another really interesting visit.

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