Skene Burial Enclosure

Dyce, Aberdeen City

Address: Skene Burial Enclosure, Riverview Drive, Dyce, Aberdeen, AB21 7LE

Latitude: 57.212986

Longitude: -2.180133

Find A Grave Link: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2580816/skene-burial-enclosure12 memorials

Website: -

Description: The Skene Burial Enclosure lies in woodland on the SW bank of the River Don at Dyce, just north of the Pumping Station on Riverside Drive. The burial ground takes the form of a rectangular enclosure, approximately 10 metres square, walled in granite to a height of approximately 2½ metres, with a single doorway on the SW side. The style suggests it was erected or re-fashioned in the 19th century, although there is a stone let in to the wall above the inside of the doorway which bears the incised figure “1682”. The remains of a cast-iron gate hang in the doorway, and there are signs that something (a metallic shield or coat of arms?) was formerly attached to the stonework above the lintel. The interior has been subject to vandalism. In “Aberdeenshire Epitaphs and Inscriptions”, John Henderson states (p. 8): “The line of Skene failed in Andrew Skene of Dyce, who died on 2nd January, 1815, at the age of 84. Under a deed of entail, General Gordon-Cumming of Pitlurg succeeded, and thereupon assumed the additional surname of Skene.” This would account for the fact that the “Skene” enclosure records as many Gordons as Skenes. The Skenes, and subsequently the Gordons, owned Parkhill house, half a mile away across the Don, in the parish of Newmachar, and Henderson confusingly gives further information on the Skene Enclosure on pages 452-455, in the article on the parish of Newmachar, and quotes the inscriptions on a total of 6 stones, two of which are still visible (nos. 2 and 3) On the inside wall opposite the gate are two identical, symmetrically-arranged stone frames; they almost certainly contained memorial plaques which have disappeared, but these are probably among the other inscriptions seen and recorded by Henderson. There are two further stones on the same wall, one at ground level, one higher up, and a free-standing stone in front of the left-hand wall; the inscriptions from all of these, plus others reported by Henderson, but not now visible, are on the following pages. In front of the right-hand “frame” a square stone is let into the ground. This might have been the base for an obelisk. There are now no signs of any other stones in the enclosure.