CHAS’ & RUBY’S 2006 UK TOUR Thursday, June 1st: CULROSS ABBEY’s INCREDIBLE GRAVEYARD!

I’ve LONG been interested in the gravestone “legends” found within old graveyards.
[If you don’t believe me, see the page including the St. PETER’s CHURCH Gravestone I fell in LUV with
during this 2006 UK trip! OR, the BRAEMAR KIRKYARD I fell in LUV with in 2003!]

Unfortunately, the OLDEST of gravestones often are ILLEGIBLE, due to
TIME (weather) eroding and obscuring their carved text.

At Culross Abbey’s graveyard, however, most of the gravestones had fallen over
FORWARD, burying & PRESERVING their carvings for hundreds of years!

Consequently, when they recently were EXCAVATED and restored to an UPRIGHT POSITION, these grave markers revealed very well-preserved examples of 16th CENTURY GRAVESTONE ENGRAVINGS !!!

In the 17th & 16th Centuries (and BEFORE), since so very few
people could READ, Gravestone SYMBOLS were used

to indicate the “LIVELIHOOD” of the person buried beneath the stone
– thus, indicating the PERSON buried beneath the stone.

It is terrific FUN to guess the INTERPRETATION of these Olde Symbols

For INSTANCE: Was this guy (who died in 1739) a BREAD BAKER? [SURELY he didn’t bake PIZZAS!!! LOL]

OH! Check out THESE SYMBOLS!:

This person probably was some kind of “SURGEON”!

Obviously, SYMBOLS don’t tell as much of a “STORY” as do WORD engravings!
Thankfully, many of the Culross Abbey Graveyard stones contained “EPITAPHS”!

1800 John Beveridge AND Elizabeth Crawford His Spouse Their Burying Ground

I also LUV the many “archaic” SPELLING forms seen on the olde stones! HIER LYES [THE] CORPS OF ROBERT FERGUSON MALTMAN IN COULROS HE DYED NOVMBER 1739 [AND] OF HIS AGE 54 [AND] TWO [of] HIS CHILDREN ROBERT [AND] DONALD FERGUSON

CHECK OUT THE WAY they CONSERVED SPACE when engraving olde gravestones! [As demonstrated in the STONE ABOVE] “THE” is run-together! “AND” is run-together! Additionally, when necessary, “OF” is made VERY SMALL!

A few of the old gravestones have been replaced by NEWER versions, presumably (hopefully!) recreating their original text.

Erected BY THOMAS BUCHANAN IN MEMORY OF HIS WIFE JANET STEWART WHO DIED 1ST NOVEMBER 1866 AGED 61 YEARS ALSO HIS DAUGHTER ELIZABETH WHO DIED 18TH OCTOBER 1857 AGED 20 YEARS THE ABOVE THOMAS BUCHANAN DIED 1ST OCTOBER 1800 AGED [???????????????] JAMES [??????????SON] DIED 20TH OCTOBER 1800 AGED 71 YEARS THEIR DAUGHTERS MARION DIED 7TH JULY 1908 AGED 72 YEARS JANET DIED 15TH DECEMBER 1916 AGED 73 YEARS THOMAS THEIR SON DIED [???] SEPTEMBER 1917 AGED 72 YEARS

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE:
CULROSS ABBEY CHURCH INTERIOR PIX

OR SKIP to THE OTHER CULROSS PIX PAGE
A Few More CULROSS VILLAGE PIX

If you have information or suggestions for Ruby & Chas’ 2006 UK TOUR Website
– or PHOTO contributions for it! –
PLZ Email CHAS!
c-d-miller@neb.rr.com
That’s: c-d-miller@neb.rr.com –
those are hyphens/dashes (-) between the “c” and “d” and “miller”