It is the resting place of some of Dundee’s best and brightest.
But the Dundee Howff has fallen into disrepair, with many of the graves lying in pieces. Now one woman has started a project to rescue the burial ground.
Karen Nichols, who works as a tour guide around the city, has started the renovation campaign to save “a part of our history”.
She is currently recruiting volunteers to help her in the conservation effort.
“I do tours through the Howff and I’ve watched the stones degrade over the two or three years,” she said.
“In the best traditions of Dundee, I thought I’d get a group together to help conserve this important part of the city’s history.
“I started off by inviting people on my mailing list from the tours and I got about 10 people through that.
“But I’ve also started an online campaign with a Facebook page, which received over 60 likes in the first 24 hours.
“There’s been a lot of interest,” she added.
Karen hopes her team of volunteers will be able to undertake a variety of restorative works at the graveyard, as well as raise funds for more professional work at the site.
She said: “The Howff is part of our heritage and if it is lost its gone and we can’t get it back.
“Our history could be lost if we don’t act. But having it in a neat fashion is also great for those who use the Howff recreationally, making it a pleasant place to be.
“Some of the work will be done by professionals and we hope to raise the funds to allow that to happen.
“But we’ll be working at simple things like painting the railings and straightening the stones, things like that.
“There’s a lot we can do,” she added.
A meeting of interested volunteers took place at the weekend, but further information is available at the Dundee Howff Restoration Group Facebook page.
The Howff is an old word meaning a “meeting place”.
Originally it was the gardens of the Greyfriars Monastery, destroyed in 1547, granted to the town as a place of burial by Queen Mary in 1564.
There are many references to the Howff being used as a meeting place, the first being used by the Bakers Trade in 1576. Each craft probably has its own special meeting place.
In January 1581, the agreement uniting the Nine Trades into one was signed in the Howff, which met there until 1776. Burial was discontinued at the Howff in 1857.