The burial ground was opened in 1718, and is the resting place of several notable Scots, including philosopher David Hume, scientist John Playfair, rival publishers William Blackwood and Archibald Constable, and clergyman Dr Robert Candlish.

This road cut through the existing graveyard, requiring major removal of bodies and stones which was done with a high degree of respect, bones being carefully grouped and wrapped for removal to New Calton Burial Ground, 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) eastwards, where several of the more substantial stones were also re-erected.

Due to the cut, a small section of the graveyard is isolated to the north side of Waterloo Place, and is accessed from Calton Hill (the street).

The building to its east, part of Archibald Elliot's Waterloo Place development, was originally the Calton Convening Rooms for the Incorporated Trades of Calton built as a replacement for their old convening rooms, which were demolished to make way for Waterloo Place and the Regent Bridge.

In 1793 several members of The Friends of the People, an early universal suffrage movement, were brought to trial and sentenced to 14 years' deportation, being charged before Lord Braxfield with "unconscious sedition" and treason for attempting to correspond with the French.

Thomas Muir of Huntershill was their leading figure, and he, along with four others who followed him, was banished to Botany Bay in Australia on 30 August 1793.

The huge obelisk (designed by Thomas Hamilton buried just behind), clearly visible from many central Edinburgh viewpoints, is the focal point of Old Calton Burial Ground, and was erected in their memory.

I have devoted myself to the cause of the people, it is a good cause – it shall ultimately prevail – it shall finally triumph – speech of Thomas Muir in the Court of Justiciary on the 30th August 1793.

I know that what has been done these two days will be re-judged – speech of William Skirving on the 7th January 1794.The Scottish Reform Act 1832 eventually brought about their aim, and the men were pardoned in 1838.

Depicting a standing figure of Abraham Lincoln, with a freed slave giving thanks at his feet, it is a focal point of the burial ground, located just in front of Hume's tomb.

[11] Five thousand dollars was subscribed in one-hundred dollar subscriptions from fifty gentlemen including:[2]Levi P Morton, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John S Kennedy, William Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, William Waldorf Astor, John Sloane, George Peabody Wetmore, Daniel Appleton Harper & Brothers, J. Kennedy Tod, John B. Dutcher, Solomon Turok, Caledonian Club, and Henderson Brothers of New York, David A Boody, John Arbuckle, Henry R. Heath, Francis H. Wilson, Andrew D. Baird, Andrew R Baird, Alexander S. Baird, William W. Baird and Joseph Stewart of Brooklyn, E. C. Benedict of Greenwich Conn.; James Benedict of Norwalk Conn.; Lynde Harrison of New Haven, Conn; John Beattie of Leete's Island, Conn.; Henry L Young, Andrew Smith, John Donald, and Wallace Bruce of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Peter Kinnear of Albany, N.Y.; George Munger of Fishkill, N.Y.; S. D. Coykendall of Rondout, N.Y.; J. Watts de Peyster of Tivoli, N.Y.; Edwin B. Sheldon of Delhi, N.Y.; E. Lemon and Nathan Bickford of Washington, D.C.; R. B. Leuchare and Henry Norwell of Boston, Mass.

; and George W. Childs of Philadelphia.It was the widow of Sgt Major McEwan who originally initiated the request by writing a letter of complaint to the United States government.

Two carved female figures flank the monument, exposing their breasts and holding a book open to view.

Another stone, dated 1762, bears a skull and the motto "Memento Mori", with an hourglass lying on its side, indicating the sands of life have stopped, as well as crossed bones and crossed turf cutter and spade, the tools of the sexton indicating more symbols of mortality together they remind us that death will come to us all.

Even from an early age, the painter David Allan (1744–1796) showed artistic talent, being expelled from school for caricaturing a master.

Known as "the Scottish Hogarth", he illustrated The Gentle Shepherd by Allan Ramsay and importantly much of Robert Burns' work.

The headstone was erected in 1874, almost 80 years after his death, by the Royal Scottish Academy, and includes a profile medallion insert of his likeness by John Hutchison.

Historian and philosopher David Hume (1711–1776), author of Treatise of Human Nature, was a household name across Europe in the 18th century, and a critical figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

In his will Hume requested that a "Monument be built over my body ... with an Inscription containing only my Name and the Year of my Birth and Death, leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest.

His niece is also interred here and she added a particularly Christian sentiment to her panel, which reads "Behold, I come quickly, thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ".

The very well-carved stone erected by Captain John Gray in memory of his parents, c1760, is in excellent condition, and is arguably the most interesting in the whole burial ground.

This very recently erected stone commemorates John McDougall (VC) (1840–1869), a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for his infiltration of Taku Forts during the Second China War.

The main marble tablet is eroded and illegible; a new inscription has been added to the rear, which reads "Re-erected 1866 by a few gentlemen who thought it well that the last resting place should not be forgotten of one who contributed largely to the enjoyments of his fellow creatures and whose taste and talents recommended him to the friendship of the poets, Fergusson and Burns".

William Shakespeare, Macbeth, V, v.Pity it is that the momentary beauties flowing from an harmonious elocution cannot, like those of poetry, be their own record, that the animated graces of the player can live no longer than the instant breath and motion that presents them or at best can faintly glimmer through the memory of imperfect attestation of a few surviving spectators.

Haig is of most note for being instrumental in the enterprising promotion of whisky at the failure of the wine and brandy market in the late 19th century.

A small oval medallion at the base contains the motif of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, symbolic of the soul leaving the body.

Partly backed by this cash he set up several enterprises, most notably the first Edinburgh Penny Post in 1773, which was usefully linked to one of the world's first street directories.

Sir John Steell (1804–1891) acclaimed Scottish sculptor is buried in an unmarked grave in one of the family vaults to the side.

Betty Morton's monument was erected by Archibald Campbell Tait (1811–1882), Archbishop of Canterbury, in memory of his nanny.

Iron tablets, such as the one to John and David Paton (builders of much of the Edinburgh New Town), c1830, were in vogue for a decade or two, and it was not realised how badly these items would weather.