Ramshorn Cemetery

Ramshorn Cemetery, Glasgow

St David's Church and the entrance to Ramshorn Cemetery on Ingram Street, Glasgow

The Ramshorn Cemetery is a cemetery in Scotland and one of Glasgow's older burial grounds. It has had various names, both official and unofficial: North West Parish Kirkyard; St David's Kirkyard; and Ramshorn and Blackfriars. The latter name tells of its link to Blackfriars Church, linking in turn to the pre-Reformation connection to the Blackfriars Monastery in Glasgow.^[1]

The burial ground was used from 1719 to 1915.^[2] In the 20th century it was remodelled along the lines of the London Improvements Act, moving most stones to the perimeter to create a usable park area. Apart from some flat stones still remaining in-situ this has largely disconnected the stones to the actual spot of interment.

In 1813 the body of Janet McAlister was stolen from the graveyard, being found with 4 others in College Street Medical School.^[3]

In 1824 the church of St David was built on its southern side, designed in a fine Gothic style by the English architect Thomas Rickman, with modifications by local architect James Cleland.^[4]

The cemetery is effectively in three sections: the original cemetery; an enclosed central walled area where the old church stood; and two small walled sections flanking the new church. Unusually monuments adopt only two forms: wall monuments and flat slabs, other than a small row of small 18th-century stones upright but partly sunk into the ground, standing in a line to the north-east.

Despite its great simplicity, the majority of graves are to rich Glasgow merchants. The austere style is a hangover from Scottish Calvinist views.

Notable interments[]

• John Anderson (theologian and controversialist) (1668-1721)
• John Anderson (natural philosopher) (1726-1796)
• James Brash (d.1844) and his father James Brash, booksellers
• Andrew Buchanan of Drumpellier (1690-1759), tobacco merchant, Lord Provost of Glasgow 1740-42
• Robert Carrick (1737-1821) banker and millionaire (unmarked grave) a notedly unloved man
• Rev Prof James Couper (1752-1836), astronomer
• David Dale (1739-1806) merchant and social reformer
• Prof John Alexander Easton (1807-1865)
• Rev Prof Robert Findlay (minister) (1721-1814) and his son Robert (1745-1862)
• Rev James Fisher, maternal grandfather of Rev Ralph Wardlaw
• Andrew Foulis (printer) (1716-1775)
• Robert Foulis (printer) (1707-1776)
• John Glassford (1719-1783), tobacco merchant
• Pierre Emile L'Angelier (1823-1857), the victim in the famous Madeleine Smith murder case
• William Logan and Jane Johnston, founders of Logan and Johnston's Orphan Hospital
• Henry Monteith (1764-1848) Lord Provost of Glasgow 1814-1816
• Andrew Dryburgh Provand (1838-1915) MP
• Rev Alexander Ranken minister of the adjacent church 1785 to 1827, Moderator in 1811
• Robert Rodger Lord Provost 1707-9 and 1711-13 and MP for Glasgow Burghs 1708-10
• Simon Ross (d.1818)
• Moses Stevens of Bellahouston (1806-1871)
• Hugh Wylie (d.1782), Lord Provost of Glasgow 1780-82

Other monuments[]

A memorial to the Canadian politician, John A. Macdonald born in Ramshorn Parish in 1815

References[]

External links[]

• Ramshorn Graveyard, Find A Grave

Coordinates: 55°51′36″N 4°14′41″W / 55.8601°N 4.2447°W / 55.8601; -4.2447