Two Historic Cemeteries in Edinburgh

 I'm continuing my wildlife surveys of the cemeteries owned by Edinburgh Council (and falling a little behind in blogging about them!). I've recently visited two small historic cemeteries outside the centre of town. The first of these was Corstorphine Parish cemetery, which is most famous for the Corstorphine sycamore that stands at its gate. 

This tree is one of only a very few individuals of a rare subspecies of sycamore known as the Corstorphine sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus corstorphinensis). It does not produce seeds and can only be propagated from cuttings. It's a descendent of the original Corstorphine sycamore that stood near the doocot (dovecot) in Corstorphine village, which was lost in a storm in 1998. My poem Corstorphine Sycamore (which you can read here) tells a tale of the history attached to this tree. 

Corstorphine Parish Kirkyard is a nicely kept historical graveyard with some nice trees.

with a lovely splash of autumn colour from the fallen leaves of a Virginia creeper. 

and a spooky touch from the lace weaver spiders (as a Facebook friend said, it looks like a wee ghost!

Today I visited Dalmeny Kirkyard, which is in the village of Dalmeny to the north west of Edinburgh. Dalmeny Kirk dates back to the 12th Century and is a beautiful building 

there are some wonderful old gravestones in this cemetery, including this one 

Many of the gravestones are covered in mosses and lichens, the more I looked, the more fascinating lichens I found, including this one, which I can't identify

and this beautiful array of Xanthoria parietina on a fallen twig