Udny Green

Our day started with a walk around the policies of Udny Castle and then a dander around the village of Udny Green. 

This old gravestone sits in the the village graveyard. Like so many old Scottish memorials it is carved with symbols of our certain mortality, our hopeful immortality and the profession of the deceased. 

In this case the symbols of mortality are a skull and crossed leg bones. At the upper corners are two winged Cherubs representing the soul leaving the body at the time of death and ascending to wait until the Day of Judgement, when the body will rise to join it.

The symbol in the centre is the crown and hammer, the symbol of the Hammermen's Guild. This incorporation was granted the use of a royal crown on its coat of arms. Any craft whose  work involved the use of a hammer on metal qualified for membership; armourers, pewterers, cutlers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, gunsmiths etc.

Extra. Just outside the graveyard there is old postbox adorned with another Royal Crown, dating from Queen Victoria's reign.