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, they served as reminders to the still living that they too must die.

This grim looking skull on a stone in Foveran kirkyard brought to mind J. C. Milne's Doric poem Age and Youth where some-one at the end of their life reminds a youth of what lies in store. 

For you, the Simmer's heicht,
The kennelt funn.
For me, the smorin weicht 
O' kirkyard grun.

But fut's the odds?
Fin twa-three years has gane,
There'll aye be sods
Aneuch for you, ma freen.

.........

For you the the height of Summer,
The golden gorse.
For me the smothering weight
Of churchyard soil.

But what's the odds?
When twenty three years have gone,
There will always be sods
Enough for you, my friend.

.........

Sleep well!