As seen in Udny Green

This is something that you probably don't see every day ... any ideas on what it is ? Don't worry, I'll tell you ...

This is the mort-house at the kirkyard in Udny Green, Aberdeenshire. Back in the days when graverobbers would target fresh graves to obtain bodies for medical research, coffins were kept temporarily in the mort house until they were "no longer of use to medical students" (you can work out what that means on your own) ...

Now the one at Udny Green has a very ingenious design ... dating from 1832, this circular morthouse contained a wheel ... when a new coffin came, it was put on the wheel and the wheel moved round a bit ... and the house locked up. The coffin wouldn't come out for burial until the wheel had done one full revolution, at which point the body would be beyond the interest of the medics and could safely be buried.

( I don't know if the wheel is still in there to this day or not as the door is securely locked. )