CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Edinburgh is a very interesting city and with it being just a short 25-minute train journey from our home in Dunbar we do spend a lot of time exploring Scotland's capital.   On of my favourite spots is the Old Calton Burying Ground at the foot of Calton Hill.  Many of Scotland's leading citizens of the 18th and 19th centuries are buried here and the brooding sandstone and granite structures make for great photographic subject. I was in Edinburgh yesterday evening and had 30 minutes to spare while waiting at Waverley Train Station, so I walked to the cemetery, which is just 5-minutes from the station.  The weather was typically Scottish - overcast and slight drizzle which later turned to rain.  However the diffused light was almost perfect for the type of mono images I wanted to capture. The graves and mausoleums are in some state of disrepair and the 'well worn look of decay' was exactly the feeling I wanted to portray in the set of images I capture...

At the eastern end of Princes Street in Edinburgh and just off Leith Walk is the Old Calton Cemetery.  The cemetery opened in 1718 for the burial of tradesmen and merchants and was extended in 1767.  However in 1818 it was divided by the building of Waterloo Place and the larger part, which is the place I visited, includes a number of memorials to leading members of Edinburgh society. The obelisk by Thomas Hamilton remembers the political martyrs of 1793, who were 'transported' for sedition. The classical monument to philosopher David Hume (1711-76), seen in the top left of the images above, was built in 1777 by Robert Adam (1728-92). Other residents include painter David Allan (1744-96), Robert Burn (1752 - 1815), who had built the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, publisher Archibald Constable (1774 - 1827) and sculptor Sir John Steell (1804-91). CLICK HERE for more information on the Old Calton Cemetery Image taken on Fujifilm Finepix X100S and ...

While in Edinburgh last Friday I spent a little time visiting the Old Calton Cemetery where several notable people from Edinburgh are buried (more on this in tomorrow's blog).  Walking up the steps from Leith Walk, my attention was immediately drawn to a statue of Abraham Lincoln.  On investigation this statue was mounted on top of a monument to the Scottish American soldiers who fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Scottish–American Soldiers Monument depicts a standing figure of Abraham Lincoln, with a freed slave giving thanks at his feet. A bronze shield bears the old US flag, and is wreathed in thistles to the left, and cotton to the right. Two regimental flags lie furled, the battle being over. The black man holds a book, indicating that he is not only free, he is also now educated. This was the first statue to an American President in any country outwith the USA. It is the only statue of Lincoln in Scotland, and the only monument to the ...