The Watch Tower

The New Calton Burial Ground was opened in 1820 and was the place to go if you had died with its views over the city. It includes the father and grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, both engineers famous for their lighthouses.

At this time of Edinburgh's history, the medical schools were in need of dead bodies to experiment on, but they could only legally use those criminals who had been executed - around 55 a year. The medical schools needed around 500! So it created a business to source dead bodies from elsewhere - the Resseructionists filled this gap by stealing bodies from graveyards. Now, if you're a rich merchant in Edinburgh, the last thing you want when you die is to have a load of spotty students messing with your body, so this Watch Tower was built to watch over the cemetery and ensure that it was just the bodies of the poor that were used for research.