Gala Aisle

About Gala Aisle

Built in 1636 by Captain Hugh Scott of Gala, it was a family burial vault.The Aisle was to the side of the main kirk building. When the kirk was demolished in 1813, the side walls of the Aisle were increased by roughly two metres (almost seven feet) and the end closed off with a wall and gothic window. There is a memorial plaque within the Aisle to the Parish Minister, Mark Duncan. In the late 1820s, there was a gruesome trade in dead bodies (known as body snatching) which were supplied to the Medical School in Edinburgh. This was the period of Burke and Hare and the locals were determined that their graveyard would not be robbed. They organised themselves into armed patrols to keep watch over the graves which reportedly remained untouched by thieves.