View of standing tombstone, St Mary's Church burial ground, Banff, with three rosettes at top, mason's symbols above opened book inserted in classical archway and hour-glass, skull and urn at bottom.

Description View of standing tombstone, St Mary's Church burial ground, Banff, with three rosettes at top, mason's symbols above opened book inserted in classical archway and hour-glass, skull and urn at bottom.

Date 8/1965

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number BN 167

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 801743

Scope and Content Written on verso of the mounted print: 'Shire: Banffshire. Place: Banff. Building: St Mary's Church, Carmelite Street. Photographer: G.N. Date: August 1965'. Gravestone with emblems of a mason, St Mary's Church and Burial-Ground, Church Street, Banff, Aberdeenshire This shows the gravestone with its three rosettes (emblems of rebirth) below an ornate shaped and moulded top. In the centre of the stone is an archway resting on pilasters. Two tassels at the side of the stone have 'pulled' up a curtain within the arch, t0 reveal a set of mason's tools and an open Bible. The passage reads: 'St John ch 1v 17/the law/was given/by/Moses/But grace and truth/came by JESUS CHRIST'. Below the archway are an hourglass, symbol of the swiftness of time, and a skull and coffin, emblems of death. Scottish gravestones feature a wealth of imagery and symbolic devices which represent trade emblems, symbols of death and resurrection, and Biblical scenes. They offer a fascinating insight into how our ancestors saw themselves and how they wanted to be remembered, as well as providing a store of information for people interested in family or local history, and folk art. This gravestone to a mason dates from the mid-18th century, and stands amongst many other such memorials in a crowded burial-ground which dates from the medieval period. Most of the monuments date from between the 16th century and the 19th century. No details of the inscription are available. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference MW/BR/BAN/141

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/653987