2 hours ago
1
The tomb of the philosopher David Hume and two other memorials at a historic cemetery in Edinburgh have been vandalised with “disturbing occult-style paraphernalia”.
A tour guide made the discovery at the Old Calton burial ground. It included a drawing of a naked woman pointing a bloodied knife at a baby with a noose around its neck, and coded writing on red electrical tape attached to the David Hume mausoleum and two nearby memorial stones.
The guide emailed photographs of the vandalism to Edinburgh council and described the symbols as “satanic”.
A group on Telegram purporting to be responsible for the vandalism of graves at unnamed cemeteries posted photographs of the same damage in a now-deleted channel. They shared examples of other disturbing drawings, including a naked woman grabbing the bloodied head of a baby, to which one member responded: “For EH1?” EH1 is the postcode in Edinburgh covering the historic Old Town.
The group also posted photographs of strange paraphernalia found at the Old Calton burial ground, including nails hammered through red candles, chalked symbols and red tape in which the words “anti meta physical front” were printed.
Edinburgh council said there was no CCTV covering the area and the incident was not reported to the police because the damage was temporary.
Margaret Graham, the council’s culture and communities convener, said: “I’m appalled that our historic Old Calton burial ground has been vandalised. As soon as the incident was reported, officers removed it immediately, and there have been no further incidents since.”
The tour guide’s report to the council was made public through a freedom of information (FoI) request, which was first reported by the Scotsman. The guide’s 19 November 2025 email said: “In case it had yet to be brought to your attention, I was guiding some guests today in the Old Calton cemetery and came upon some disturbing occult style paraphernalia attached to the David Hume mausoleum (pics attached).
“I removed what I could but couldn’t hang around as I had guests so I suspect you’ll want to get someone over there as soon as possible. The structure itself also had some satanic (?) symbols painted on it.”
The 18th-century cemetery, a category A-listed site, is the final resting place of several notable Scots, including the scientist John Playfair, the painter David Allan, and Hume, whose mausoleum was designed by the architect Robert Adam.
Hume was an Enlightenment philosopher and historian whose name was removed from a tower block in Edinburgh after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 over his “comments on matters of race”.
Edinburgh council has been forced to close the cemetery, and the nearby New Calton burial ground, in the evenings after complaints of antisocial behaviour. The FoI request revealed that in May last year tour guides had reported “repeated acts of vandalism and aggressive behaviour by groups of teenagers … with some situations escalating to physical aggression, including stone throwing directed at staff and visitors”.
In response to a complaint last August about the cemetery gates being locked at night, the council doubled down on the decision, saying: “There have been a number of serious assaults and injuries to tourists reported and response policing are not able to continue attending the number of calls they receive.”
A guide who operates in Old Calton told the Guardian he had spotted a “strange” gathering outside the David Hume mausoleum on 16 January at 10pm when the cemetery gates were locked. He claimed four men in long white robes were kneeling by the mausoleum and lighting candles.
“I don’t have any idea what they were doing. We just escaped,” said the guide, who did not want to be named. “There were several candles inside the mausoleum, and now there are always sage plants close to the mausoleum. Obviously I told all the guides to pay attention. Sometimes we have private tours in the night and it could be dangerous.”
