Memento Mori

Skulls (and crossed-femurs) are common symbols on old Scottish gravestones. Some would have it that they mark the graves of pirates but if that were true piracy must have been the career of choice for almost everyone! They are in fact symbols of our mortality; along with carved skulls, coffins, hour-glasses, grave-diggers tools, deid bells, and the chilling message Memento Mori (remember that you must die), they served as reminders to the still living that they too must die. This grim skull can be found in Foveran Kirkyard.

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