Wednesday 25th July - Edinburgh - Dean Cemetery, Botanic Gardens & Linlithgow Palace

Wednesday 25th July

A beautiful warm sunny day

The Dean Cemetery, Royal Botanic Gardens & Linlithgow Palace

In the morning we set off to the Dean Cemetery, armed with the knowledge that Margaret had given us, as to the whereabouts of Dad's grave site

We went round to the office at the left hand side and a man came out asking us if he could help us. We told him our story of looking for Dad's grave site and gave him the date of his death. He invited us in and said that for £10 he could look up the register. He brought out this massive old book

It reads, "Mortality Record 3 and Edinburgh Western Cemetery". He opened it to find Dad's record and found the grave site number EE 55. He then offered to take us round and show us the site. It was down the right hand gravel pathway:

It took a little while searching among the gravestones, but eventually found it where J.K.Laidlaw's stone was

Margaret said that Dad's ashes were interred in the same site.

We got a handwritten record of Dad's entry in the book to keep. All in all it was an unexpectedly good result.

From there we went to the entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens

... with a beautiful set of gates just as you walk in

Here is the information about them

In the huge glasshouse were some plants of particular interest

Pitcher plants

Orchids

The we walked up through the immaculate grounds to the Terrace cafe

... where we had a nice lunch

We left there to go off to Linlithgow Palace and who should we meet there but - look hard ...

... yes that's right Andy and Jeanette Patterson!!!

We walked inside to the centre court with a waterless fountain - well it plays on special occasions!

We got guided round round by two young ladies about 10 or 11 years old dressed in period cotume. They did a great job!