Culsalmond

Mellow autumnal sunshine on the pleasing ruins of Culsalmond Kirk. The kirk and kirkyard are on the site of a stone circle which has long disappeared. There has been a kirk in the vicinity since the 12th century. The elaborate birdcage belfry was reclaimed from an earlier kirk on the site and is dated 1680.

In the corner of the kirkyard there is a two storey building part of which is below ground. (Extra)The lower portion which retains a thick iron door and is entered by descending stone steps was a morthouse. The morthouse was used to protect coffins against the body snatchers - also known as Resurrectionists who removed freshly buried corpses from graveyards for use in medical schools. Above the morthouse was a watch- house used to keep watch over recent graves whose occupants had not spent a period of time in the protective morthouse before burial.

In latter years the watch house was used as a creepy and unpopular meeting place for various purposes including choir practice, Sunday School and Bible Class