Die: To stop sinning, suddenly.

This fine 17th century memorial lies in the ancient burial ground at Marnoch. The old church of Marnoch, now no longer to be seen, was dedicated to St Marnan, who was buried here about the middle of the seventh century and here his relics were preserved, and were the object of pilgrimages till the sixteenth century.
The memorial is richly carved with the symbols of mortality (including crossed bones, skulls, skeletons, hour-glass, deid bells, coffin, scythe, crossed grave-digger's tools, ) and immortality (angels of the resurrection, souls ascending to heaven) that appear on many old Scottish gravestones. Zoomify to ponder more fully upon our mortality.
In the early 19th century the graveyard was a popular venue for bodysnatchers supplying cadavers to the anatomy schools in Aberdeen. To help overcome their activities the local people built a watchhouse in the graveyard and also an underground and secure mort-house where bodies could be safely stored until they were too corrupt to be of interest to the anatomists.