> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://rochsociety.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story and Where to Walk Your Dog - URL: https://rochsociety.com/greyfriars-bobby-true-story-edinburgh/ - Published: 2026-11-04T16:14:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T16:14:00.000Z - Description: Greyfriars Bobby is the Skye terrier said to have kept watch over his master's grave in an Edinburgh kirkyard for fourteen years. What the record holds, what a historian disputes, and how to visit the statue, the grave and his collar with your own dog. - Author: Sam Robins - Tags: Interesting Journeys On the morning after John Gray was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in February 1858, the kirkyard's curator, James Brown, found a small dog lying on the freshly filled grave. Dogs were not allowed in the kirkyard, so Brown put him out. The dog came back, and kept coming back, and Edinburgh has been telling the story of Greyfriars Bobby ever since: a terrier who guarded his master's grave for fourteen years. Most of it can still be walked in an afternoon, and almost all of it can be walked with a dog of your own. ## The Watchman and His Dog The version Edinburgh tells, as [The Scotsman's Lost Edinburgh series](https://www.scotsman.com/news/lost-edinburgh-greyfriars-bobby-884789?ref=rochsociety.com) sets it out, begins with John Gray, a night watchman for the Edinburgh City Police, who took Bobby on his rounds through the closes of the Old Town from around 1856\. Other accounts make Gray a shepherd from the Pentland Hills. He died of tuberculosis on 15 February 1858 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Greyfriars. Brown, who first chased the dog off, came round to him, and Bobby became a local figure. Crowds would gather each day to watch him trot off for his lunch at a nearby inn the moment the One o'Clock Gun sounded. The detail that turns a sad story into a civic one is the dog tax. Unlicensed dogs found without an owner were destroyed, and a dog sleeping on a grave had no owner to pay for him. In 1867 the Lord Provost, William Chambers, paid the licence himself and gave Bobby a collar engraved "Greyfriars Bobby, from the Lord Provost, 1867 licensed". Bobby died on 14 January 1872, and his headstone gives his age as sixteen. ## What a Historian Found Not everyone believes it. In 2011 Jan Bondeson, a Cardiff University lecturer, published [Greyfriars Bobby: The Most Faithful Dog in the World](https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usreviews/books/amberleygreyfriars.html?ref=rochsociety.com), which went back to the Burgh Court records of who paid the dog tax and to council debates in which the story was questioned while the dog was still alive. The tale first appears in print, the book notes, in the Inverness Advertiser in 1864. Bondeson's conclusion, as [Reuters reported it](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna44023814?ref=rochsociety.com) that August, was that "the entire story is wrong". He argued that Bobby was a stray kept in the kirkyard by the food people gave him, that the legend was good business for Brown and for John Traill, who ran a restaurant nearby, and that when the first dog died in 1867 he was quietly replaced by a pure bred Skye terrier who lived until 1872\. "A dead Bobby was no good for business," he said. Even Bondeson concedes, in The Scotsman: "It won't ever be possible to debunk the story of Greyfriars Bobby. He's a living legend, the most faithful dog in the world, and bigger than all of us." ## The Statue and the Nose Start where every visitor does, at the junction of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row. The bronze terrier on its red granite column was made by William Brodie in 1873 and is a Category A listed structure, which [Historic Environment Scotland's record](https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB27899?ref=rochsociety.com) describes as a life size statue with an octagonal basin at its foot and a higher round basin above. It was built as a drinking fountain for people and dogs alike. The plaque reads "A tribute to the affectionate fidelity of Greyfriars Bobby. In 1858 this faithful dog followed the remains of his master to Greyfriars churchyard and lingered near the spot until his death in 1872", and it was erected, with permission, by Baroness Burdett Coutts. Look closely and the nose is bright gold against the dark bronze. Somewhere along the way a tradition grew up that rubbing it brings luck, and the hands have worn the patina clean off. It is bad luck for the statue, so let your dog do the admiring and keep your own hands in your pockets. ![Greyfriars Bobby's red granite headstone in the kirkyard, with sticks and dog balls left at its foot](https://rochsociety.com/content/images/2026/11/greyfriars-bobby-grave.jpg) Bobby's headstone, unveiled in 1981, with the sticks visitors leave for him. Photo: Mball93, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons ## The Kirkyard [Greyfriars Kirk](https://greyfriarskirk.com/?ref=rochsociety.com), across the road, has stood in the Old Town since 1620\. Its kirkyard belongs to the City of Edinburgh Council and is [open to visitors 24 hours a day, 365 days a year](https://greyfriarskirk.com/visit/kirkyard/?ref=rochsociety.com). John Gray, whose grave went unmarked in 1858, now has a memorial stone raised by American dog lovers. Bobby's red granite headstone stands at the entrance, opposite the main gate. It reads "Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all", and it was put up by the Dog Aid Society of Scotland and unveiled by the Duke of Gloucester on 13 May 1981\. Visitors leave [sticks, toys and treats](https://edinburgh.org/blog/tales-from-beyond-the-grave-in-edinburgh/?ref=rochsociety.com) at its foot. Your dog may come in. The council's [management rules for cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds](https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/33467/cemetery-management-rules?ref=rochsociety.com) cover the kirkyards it owns, and they ask three things of dog owners. The dog stays on a lead the whole time, nobody walks dogs there for a living, and anything your dog leaves behind is picked up under the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003\. It is still a burial ground, so keep the lead short and the visit quiet. ![Old gravestones and monuments on the lawns of Greyfriars Kirkyard, with Old Town tenements behind](https://rochsociety.com/content/images/2026/11/greyfriars-kirkyard.jpg) Greyfriars Kirkyard, open to visitors day and night. Photo: Scglossop1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons ## The Other Bobby Inside the Kirk, where [entry is free](https://greyfriarskirk.com/visit/?ref=rochsociety.com), is a smaller story most visitors miss. In April 1960 Walt Disney came to Edinburgh to research his film of Greyfriars Bobby, and an advertisement went out asking owners of Skye terriers to audition their dogs. A police sergeant in the north of Scotland saw that it carried a photograph of the statue, thought it looked very like the terrier his daughter had just taken from a rescue centre, and wrote in. The dog was called Tam. Disney met him at Shepperton Studios and cast him. After the film, Tam, now Bobby, went to live with the family of Chief Inspector John Turner in Morningside, raised money for good causes through the 1960s and made his last public appearance at Greyfriars Kirk in 1972\. He died in 1974 and was buried at Dolphinton in the Borders, and by 2008 nobody could say where. When the land was sold for housing, the new owner held off building while it was searched, and on 7 January 2023, after eighteen months, his remains were found. [The Kirk's display](https://greyfriarskirk.com/2023/06/the-story-of-the-new-bobby/?ref=rochsociety.com) tells it all, beside a new casket carved by craftsmen from The Grassmarket Project out of a cherry tree that once grew in the kirkyard. His ashes now belong to the city's archaeology collections, on loan to the Kirk. The Kirk publishes no rule on dogs indoors, so check its opening calendar before you go and plan for one of you to wait with the dog in the kirkyard. ## The Collar on the Canongate The last stop is a walk down the Royal Mile. The [Museum of Edinburgh](https://cultureedinburgh.com/our-venues/museum-of-edinburgh?ref=rochsociety.com), at 142 to 146 Canongate in a sixteenth century house, lists the collar and bowl of the famous Skye terrier among its highlights, beside the National Covenant of 1638\. Entry is free. The museum publishes no policy on dogs, so plan it for the human half of the party, or ask at the door. ## Taking Your Own Dog The statue and the kirkyard need nothing more than a lead, and the museum is a walk down the Royal Mile. For the rest of the trip, our [Edinburgh City Guide](https://rochsociety.com/dog-friendly-city-guide-edinburgh-scotland/) has the pubs that pour your pint with the dog at your feet, the walks and the beaches, and [Edinburgh's dog friendly hotels](https://rochdog.com/dog-friendly-cities/edinburgh?ref=rochsociety.com) are all in one place. If you like your loyal dogs in the mountains, [Barry and the Dogs of the Great St Bernard Pass](https://rochsociety.com/barry-and-the-dogs-of-the-great-st-bernard-pass/) is the companion read. And when your own dog drops a stick on the pile by Bobby's stone, there is no need to take it back.