Gravestone innerleithen Graveyard

This is another of the very unusual skulls you can find on old gravestones. The actual way they were portrayed was no doubt left to whoever carved the stones and these masons seem to have left their imaginations run riot. The stone also has other symbols of mortality such as the crossbones, the pillars and the hour-glass and carries two inscriptions to remind us that time is passing and we will soon be in our graves too i.e. Memento Mori (Remember the Dead as well as Remember you will die) and Fugit Hora (the hours fly by). The text is on the other side of this now fallen over stone so I couldn't read it, but according to Sheila Scott's book Scottish Monumental Inscriptions per-1855 it belongs to John Thomson (the initials IT at the top of the stone), tenant here who died 24.1.1766, aged 72, his wife Isobel Tait, died 10.6.1764, aged 82, their son James, died 10.5.1743 aged 24, their son John, died 21.7.1789, aged 68 and also to Elison Thomson daughter of Thomas Thomson, died Cardrona 6.5.1766 aged 2 years and 9 months.

You can see more pictures of my visit to Innerleithen graveyard here as well as detail of the skull. This is also my contribution to this week's theme: Memories.