Heritage society's anger over 'structural neglect' of historic East Sutherland graveyard seriously damaged in Storm Otto
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The chairman of Clyne Heritage Society Dr Nick Lindsay is blaming a lack of maintenance work by Highland Council stretching back years for devastating damage caused to an historic East Sutherland graveyard during Storm Otto.
Two trees at Clynekirkton Cemetery crashed down, severely damaging an inside enclosure, during last Friday’s storm which saw winds of up to 88 mph. Three headstones also toppled.A third tree fell to the ground in the storm’s aftermath, damaging the graveyard’s surrounding wall.
Dr Lindsay has accused the authority of "structural neglect" and said officials were told as far back as 2009 that trees in the graveyard were diseased and likely to come down in gale-force winds.
He is now calling on Highland Council to come up with a short-term repair plan and a long-term maintenance plan.
However, Highland Council says it "has not been confirmed" that it has responsibility for the site, which could be in private ownership.
The “beautiful and well-loved” graveyard, a scheduled ancient monument, is located two miles north of Brora, and is visited by people from around the world, a number of whom have ancestors interred there.
Clyne Heritage Society has been acting as ‘Friends of the Graveyard’ since 2002 when volunteers undertook a huge vegetation clearance exercise amid concern over “decades of neglect”.
Dr Lindsay said: “Several areas of the graveyard had become completely inaccessible, due to impenetrable vegetation which had been allowed to grow unchecked. Since then, the society has organised teams of volunteers to work in the graveyard each spring, to tidy it and keep it looking beautiful.”
He added: “The society alerted the council to the dangers that 13 diseased and rotting trees posed to the cemetery as early as 2009. We pointed out then that, during a future storm, there was great potential for the trees to be brought down, creating damage to the church ruin and the historic gravestones.
“Some of the trees are around 25m tall and over 100 years old. They are riddled with disease and rot and were condemned then and have only deteriorated since.
“No action was ever taken, despite subsequent reminders and, now, the predicted scenario has had devastating consequences, much to the disappointment of the community.”
The two trees which fell during Storm Otto were 15m high wych elms situated on the inside of the cemetery’s western perimeter - they crashed down onto a stone-walled and iron railing-topped enclosure.
Another elm, on the inside of the eastern perimeter wall was blown at an angle during the storm and ended up leaning against the centuries-old surrounding wall, bulging it out.
Forty-eight hours later the tree finally toppled over too, bursting the wall over the road.
“Highland Council roads department removed the masonry on Monday morning and the road was reopened, leaving a 4m long gap in the wall which is still leaning on either side,” said Dr Lindsay.
He continued: “The society is looking to the council to come up with a short-term repair plan and a long-term maintenance plan to ensure the graveyard is available for the community and its visitors.
"We want to know what the plans for the remaining trees are, and what their plan is for repairing the damage and restoring the graveyard to its former tranquil haven".
A Highland Council spokesman said: "Our staff are in communication with Historic and Environment Scotland to ascertain the ownership of Historic Burial Ground. Works to clear the fallen trees within the burial ground will require scheduled monument consent. If Highland Council are responsible for the burial ground, they will apply for consent to Historic and Environment Scotland. If it is privately owned, the owner is responsible for carrying out maintenance works."
