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In Spring 2018 a group of us undertook to record all the headstones within the graveyard.
It had become apparent that many of the stones were in poor condition; the inscriptions were degrading as a result of our wet climate and the very nature of the stone on which the memorials were inscribed. Some stones had fallen and the inscription was no longer visible; on others part or all of the inscription was irrevocably damaged but some stones provided a few tantalising details. It was essential that we did no further damage to the stones, by, for example, removing lichen and moss which are protective, so a range of non-destructive techniques were employed to decipher as many of the inscriptions as possible.
When all else failed we turned, once again, to technology. The National Records of Scotland archive all existing records of births, marriages and deaths. Statutory recording of these events began in Scotland in 1855, prior to that churches kept their own records. Not all of the Parish Records have survived, and not all of them are as informative (or as reliable) as one would wish. Both of these sets of records are available to search in person at National Records of Scotland, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 3YY, but you can search online at Scotlands People. For older records you can actually view the digitised version of the register page which can be very useful. Scotland’s People filled in many of the names and dates that we simply could not read from the stones.
Throughout the project we have borne in mind that everyone buried and/or remembered in this place was loved and respected and we have endeavoured to treat the graves and those remembered here with great dignity. We, also, have to remember that not everyone wishes their name to be recorded and this we respected.
In the course of our undertaking we discovered some very sad stories, but also heart-warming cases of co-workers or employers providing a burial place and memorial for colleagues. In common with many burial places this is designated a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery. The war dead are recorded on their family headstones. Ours is a small community but the names of 19 men who lost their lives in the service of our country are recorded here and listed overleaf. One of these servicemen was only identified as a result of the Graveyard project./p
We are indebted to Mary Haggarty and other members of the Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui Heritage Group for their help with this project.
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