View of gravestone commemorating David Donaldson, 1728, and his family, Balmaclellan churchyard.

Description View of gravestone commemorating David Donaldson, 1728, and his family, Balmaclellan churchyard.

Date 1986

Collection Papers of Betty Willsher, historian, St Andrews, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 1522680

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 26889

Scope and Content Gravestone commemorating David Donaldson and family, Balmaclellan Parish Church, Dumfries & Galloway Flanked by sprays of greenery, the winged figure at the top of this memorial symbolises the soul's ascent to Heaven after death. Beneath, traditional emblems of death and mortality, the skull, bones and hourglass, are set within a square frame, which could be interpreted as the division between life and death. Surrounding the central panel on three sides are leafy S-shaped scrolls, a decorative feature more typical of gravestones in Ayrshire. While leaves, plants and flowers appear decorative, they could also express a range of ideas about death, mortality and the after-life. Flowers could be read as metaphors on the shortness of life, blooming and then quickly withering, or might be associated with mourning, such as lilies or amaranths, or purity, such as the rose. Other plants and sprays of foliage may have been used as symbols of regeneration: just as plants return to life after appearing dead throughout winter so the soul was believed to rise to Heaven after mortal death, to await the Last Judgement and the Resurrection of the dead. View of gravestone commemorating David Donaldson, a tenant farmer, who died in 1728 aged 67. Four of his children are also commemorated here. The inscription reads: 'HERE LYS/THE BONES OF DAVID DONALD/SON IN DERECOB WHO/DYED APRIL 28th 1728 AGED/67 ALSO MARY & ELISABETH/& MARGARET & JANEY CHILDREN/OF THE ABOVE'. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap