Liberton Association AGM 2026

The Anderson Hall at Liberton Kirk was full on Saturday 17 October for the Liberton Association’s Annual General Meeting. Thank you to everyone who came, and to all the volunteers who set up the hall, ran the welcome desk and served the teas.

The business of the meeting

Alex Hammond-Chambers chaired the meeting. Members heard the President’s, Treasurer’s and Secretary’s reports, and dealt with the accounts, subscriptions, the election of the committee and honorary independent examiner, and the Association’s constitution.

The planning and local facilities report covered a busy year:

• City Plan 2040: the Association’s Local Place Plan has been submitted and is now registered with the Council, and we have put forward a biodiversity pond on the Wee Braids in the Council’s call for ideas.
• Planning matters we are following include the Northfield House Hotel site, the demolition and future of Liberton Hospital, the stalled consultation on Braid Hill Nursing Home, and developers’ interest in the Alnwickhill Road and Liberton Drive fields. The new Liberton High School is now finished and occupied.
• Pedestrian lights at the Liberton Brae and Kirk Brae junction remain an ongoing issue.
• Local amenity issues include the crash barriers on Liberton Brae, the hedges on the north side of Liberton Drive and Braid Hills Drive, the Liberton Park football changing rooms, and Liberton Tower.

The Liberton Association is now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SZ10eeFBI7s

Liberton Kirkyard: the mystery, meaning and magic of its earliest gravestones

After the business, Mark Hatton, Chair of the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard, gave a fascinating talk on the remarkable carved gravestones just outside the hall’s door. Liberton has a very precious collection of 17th- and 18th-century stones. Mark explained what their carvings meant to the people who made them: symbols of mortality, of resurrection and of the trades of those buried beneath them. He also showed how the Liberton stones were influenced by the earlier work at Greyfriars, with several of the same stonemasons working in both kirkyards.

Mark’s hope, which the Association shares, is that once local people understand how special these stones are, they will appreciate them and help look after them. Plenty of questions followed, and many of us will never walk through the kirkyard in quite the same way again.

Mark gave his time free of charge, and we are very grateful to him. He is happy to speak to other groups about Greyfriars Kirkyard and Scottish gravestones more generally. If your group would like to invite him, please contact us and we will put you in touch.

Photographs: Rodger Stirling.

The meeting closed with an announcement from John Doohan of our upcoming Summer fete, to be held in and around the Liberton Kirk Halls on Saturday the 26th June, 2027. Plans are at an early stage, but we aim to make this a community event for all Liberton residents.