The old cemetery in Barrhill Road

It was the original site of the Gallows.

Hundreds of years ago Cumnock people buried their dead in the Kirkyard – the area round the parish church, which we now know as The Square. This practice came to an end around 1768, but interments were being carried out in the ground adjacent to the Gallows Hill, on the Barrhill from 1756. Several Covenanters had been buried there, in the shadow of the scaffold, in the 17th century, ‘out of contempt’. But such was the reputation of these martyrs, that the Cumnock people had no qualms about burying their dead in adjacent lairs. The Peden obelisk (seen on the left)  was erected in 1891 to mark the spot where “Peden the Prophet” was buried.. Made from Aberdeen granite and designed by R S Ingram, the memorial was unveiled on 16th July 1892 by Professor John Stuart Blackie.

After 1877, following the laying-out of a new cemetery beyond the New Station on Glaisnock Road, fewer burials were carried out at the Barrhill site, and only citizens who owned lairs in the old graveyard were entitled to arrange burials there. Occasional burials have been carried out in such family lairs within living memory.

A visit to this cemetery is of great interest. Even the limited wording on most of the headstones and memorials can give an impression of the way of life in those far-off days.

Cumnock History Group has gravestone photos by George McMillan and inscriptions available for free in the online shop

Cumnock Action Plan with Cumnock History Group . Plaques funded by 9CC.

cumnockhistorygroup.org