Tarves Tomb

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking. OpenStreetMap and Google mark a small parking area on The Square in the centre of Tarves, about 110 m west of the tomb, but no official source names it, so the status is recorded as unknown.

Driving pin: that parking area on The Square; the tomb is in the kirkyard of Tarves Parish Church, a short walk east. Tarves is 15 miles north-west of Aberdeen and about 2.5 miles from Tolquhon Castle. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only; buses stop on The Square.

About

In the kirkyard of Tarves, a village near Ellon, a red sandstone altar tomb is the only surviving fragment of the medieval church. It was built in 1589 for Sir William Forbes, 7th laird of Tolquhon, and his wife Elizabeth Gordon, and carved by the master mason Thomas Leiper, who had just finished building Tolquhon Castle 2.5 miles away. Its design was inspired by Bishop Gavin Dunbar's tomb in St Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen. The tomb chest has an arcaded front beneath a round arch with heavy Gothic cusping, framed by Renaissance balusters. Small portrait figures of the couple support the arch: Sir William in a flat cap, ruff and slashed doublet, Lady Elizabeth in an embroidered gown with full sleeves. Above are their coats of arms and mottoes, a crown with unicorns and the date 1589. When the rest of the Forbes aisle was demolished about 1798, a pink granite pediment was added over the surviving wall. The tomb is seen in its glass-roofed shelter in the kirkyard.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Tarves TombOpen all year; the tomb is seen in its glazed shelter in the kirkyard, no hours published

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Tarves Tomb is free to visit and open year-round.' No hours, closures or notices on 21 October 2026.

The red sandstone tomb is set into the last surviving wall of the medieval church's aisle, in the kirkyard of Tarves Parish Church, a working Church of Scotland church. It stands in a small glass-roofed shelter that protects the carving, and recent visitors found it behind gates or a protective cover, so it may be seen only through the glass. No toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The carved red sandstone arch of the Tarves Tomb, with its tomb chest, heraldry and small figures, set into a rubble wall inside a glass-roofed shelter. PaulT (Gunther Tschuch), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tarves_Churchyard_Tolquhon_Monument_01.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.