Up to 200 medieval graves to be exhumed for Edinburgh trams extension

City of Edinburgh Council officials will seek permission from the courts next week to dismantle the A-listed wall of the South Leith Parish Church graveyard on Constitution Street, Edinburgh Evening News reports.

The work will require the “archaeological exhumation of the remains of approximately 200 grave sites dating from between the 14th and 17th centuries and associated archaeological remains currently buried underneath the wall and Constitution Street”, the council has said.

An application for consent to exhume the bodies will be made to Edinburgh Sheriff Court next Monday 9 September.

Transport convenor Councillor Lesley Macinnes said: “The bodies would be carefully excavated by the project’s archaeologists and curated by the council along with our established collection of archaeological remains.

“Leith has a long and colourful history and is recognised as one of the most important urban archaeology sites in Scotland so this archaeological work will give us an even closer insight into the area’s medieval past.”