Graveyards in Strathaven

[Forfarian]

Gravestones in country churchyards were very uncommon before the second half of the 17th century, they were for rich folk and Avondale parish was full of tenant farmers and weavers, the Duke of Hamilton was quite possibly the only landowner in the parish and he and his family were all tucked-up in their own private burial aisle in the old Collegiate church down in Hamilton.

See the attached extract from the Old Statistical Account from https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/home

the obligatory Rowan trees, always planted at an entrance to anywhere, home or burial ground, to ward off evil spirits

because it was believed that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was make of rowan wood. I suspect that is a case of the church hi-jacking an earlier pagan belief, because as far as I am aware Rowan doesn't grow around the eastern Mediterranean.