Bereavement services

We're guardians of over 300 Properties in Care. Of these, more than a quarter contain burial grounds which, at various points in history, have served as sites of interment for human remains.

These properties include many different types of burial, such as ancient sites where ceremonial cremations may have taken place. Because we're not fully certain how our ancient ancestors used these places, they're known as a sacred site of unconfirmed religious origin.

Elsewhere, the picture is much clearer. From impressive cathedrals and abbeys to serene churches and priories, almost all of the religious sites in our care have some kind of graveyard. There's also special cemeteries like the one at Jarlshof, used for the interment of seamen recovered along the coast.

As custodians, it's part of our role to ensure activities like burials, the scattering of ashes and the establishment of memorials are respectful and legally compliant. This guide gives an overview of our bereavement services and the legislation and processes which are currently in place.

Certain Properties in Care contain designated burial grounds where individuals may hold a legal right to burial. This allows them to request the interment of human remains or cremated remains within a casket.

If you believe you may qualify and wish to make a formal interment request, you should submit an application as below.

Submitting an application

To request an application for interment please email bereavement.services@hes.scot

Applicants must include with the form:

• Proof of the right to burial includes one or more of: a lair certificate, a right to burial certificate, a will, a title deed or other legal documentation confirming burial rights.

• The Scottish Government BF form required for all burial applications. These forms are available online and include guidance notes to assist applicants. Links are provided below for ease.

If you require assistance, you can arrange a telephone appointment during our operating hours.

Required consents

Consents for Burial are required in order to progress an application. This includes scheduled monument consent and HES internal consent, along with Scottish Ministers’ consent and landowner consent where applicable.

HES will review your application and determine whether it can progress to Scheduled Monument consent. In cases where environmental surveys or lair depth testing are required, applicants will be responsible for the associated costs. These fees are non-refundable.

Due to statutory obligations, the process may take approximately 12 weeks or longer. For this reason, the procedure is most suitable for the interment of cremated remains within a casket.

Legislation introduced in the mid 19th century required the creation of Burial Registers, which were intended to record the details of individuals interred in each lair. In most cases these registers were completed diligently and provide a reliable account of places of rest. It is not uncommon, however, for a family headstone to be located separately from the lair in which an individual was interred—sometimes elsewhere within the same churchyard, or even in a different burial ground elsewhere in the country or abroad.

HES does not currently provide genealogical research services. If you require assistance with ancestral research, we recommend consulting commercial genealogy providers, many of whom offer specialist services tailored to burial related enquiries. A range of subscription based online platforms also provide access to archival material, including digitised catalogues held by the National Records of Scotland.

Where HES holds the relevant burial register, we will provide access accordingly. In cases where further research or archival visits are required, this may be offered as a chargeable service. If records are unavailable through HES due to limitations in the inherited collections, applicants are encouraged to pursue their enquiry through the National Records of Scotland or their local authority archives.

Please note that there is currently no online or digital access to burial registers.

Burial registers held by HES

HES holds burial registers for the following Properties in Care:

• Beauly Priory

• Dryburgh Abbey

• Dunblane Cathedral

• Edinburgh Castle Dog Cemetery

• St Andrews Cathedral

It should be noted that there was no formal requirement to record deaths in burial registers prior to the mid 19th century. As a result, HES often inherited only partial records, reflecting the historic nature of our graveyards, many of which contain interments dating back several centuries before the creation of Burial Registers. In addition, there are missing time periods within the 19th and 20th centuries in the records we inherited, where volumes have been lost or damaged through the passage of time.

Viewing a Burial Register

If you wish to view a burial register for genealogy purposes, or if you need to locate lair details to complete a statutory burial form (see Right to Burial), you may arrange access by contacting our Archives Team.

When contacting the Archives team, please include:

• the name of the property

• the name of the burial ground

• any known lair or plot details

Providing this information enables staff to identify the correct register and arrange an appointment for you to view the relevant records.

Please note that HES does not search the registers or identify individuals on behalf of enquirers. You will be provided access to the appropriate section of the register—either by alphabetical surname range or by period of burial—based on the information you supply.

If records are unavailable through HES, applicants are encouraged to pursue their enquiry through the National Records of Scotland or their local authority archives.

We're sometimes asked about the scattering of ashes at Properties in Care.

Unfortunately, we are not able to permit this. We fully recognise the personal significance of these requests and sincerely apologise that we are not able to facilitate them at this time. We're confirming landowner consent remains granted at each Property in Care while reviewing our procedures with a view to producing a policy concerning the scattering of ashes and memorial benches. We want to provide fair and transparent processes which align with other public bodies and ensures the monuments are protected.

If you would like to include these amazing historic places in your legacy, you could consider leaving a gift in your will. This contributes to our conservation work and our role in protecting Scotland's heritage for future generations.

Find out more about how you can support us

The installation of new or replacement memorial benches is currently not permitted while we complete a full catalogue of the memorial benches already in place. Once this work is finished, we will operate a waiting list for plaque spaces on benches at sites where this service is available. Please note that applicants will be required to supply a plaque in the style specified by HES as appropriate for the location.

Please contact us via bereavement.services@hes.scot if you wish to:

• be added to the waiting list for a new plaque on a bench

• request to amend an existing plaque, for example adding a family member or updating an inscription

Returning plaques

Looking ahead, we intend to return plaques to relatives of those commemorated when a bench reaches the end of its life and must be removed or recycled. This will allow families to retain the plaque for safekeeping. Where a bench is replaced, this will also create opportunities for those on the waiting list to apply for a new plaque.

If you are a relative of someone commemorated on an existing plaque and would like to receive the plaque when the bench reaches the end of its life, please email bereavement.services@hes.scot

Please see our dedicated page for more information on gravestone inspections and repairs:

Looking after gravestones

The memorials to those interred within our Scheduled Monuments are part of the Scheduled Monuments due to portions of the headstones, vaults, crypts and memorial objects being either within the ground or building into structures. They hold the same protected status as any other part of the Property in Care. Any alterations to these requires scheduled monument consent.

Where an individual or a family hold a Right to Burial, this also includes the legal rights over any headstone or memorial within that lair.

If you wish to contact us via bereavement.services@hes.scot if you wish to:

• discuss alteration or repair of a headstone which you believe you hold a Right of Burial for

• update your contact details or register a known Right to Burial for a headstone or memorial belonging to your family

Our Bereavement Services operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 10.00am and 4.00pm.

You can email us at bereavement.services@hes.scot with any queries or to arrange a telephone appointment during our operating hours.