Wardlaw Mausoleum is in Wardlaw Graveyard at the top of Wardlaw Road in Kirkhill, 8 miles west of Inverness. It was built in 1634 as the burial place for the Lovat Frasers on the end of the original parish church. The roof of the mausoleum was raised and a tower added in 1722 by the then Lord Lovat, the ‘Old Fox’ of the Jacobite Rebellion who was later buried in the crypt. It was used by the Lovats until the early 19th century. The building then fell into disrepair until the 1990’s when the Wardlaw Mausoleum Trust was formed to rescue it. This led to a restoration project with Historic Scotland and Lottery funding. The mausoleum is listed as Grade ‘A’ by Historic Scotland, the highest level of importance.

Recent Posts

  • Results of Bone Analysis on the Headless Lady in the Coffin- Followers of our story will recall that Sue Black sent the sternum (breast) bone from the remains of the young lady that we found in Simon the Fox’s coffin to Dr. Ceiridwen Edwards, Senior Research Fellow in Archaeogenetics at the University of Huddersfield, to see if she could recover DNA. Even though this was the […]
  • Did we open the right coffin?- There was an interesting post from Sarah Fraser recently – did the coffin we examined belong to Simon the Fox? It is a double lead coffin, the type Prof Sue Black told us was used when bodies are to be transported a long distance, such as from London to Kirkhill. The other coffins appear to […]
  • Wardlaw Mausoleum with a blue sky Doors Open Days- Doors Open Days - 2nd & 3rd September
  • Happy New Year!- ​We wish everyone a Happy New Year when it comes. Thank you for supporting us over the past year. Sláinte!
  • Do we have ‘The Old Fox’?- ​You may be aware that for some time we have wanted to do a DNA test on the remains in the coffin that is believed to contain Simon the Fox. We want to find out if he is buried here or, as the official records state, at the Tower of London. This will now take […]