Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017270
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017270
This plain, circular building could be easily mistaken for a rather substantial toolstore. A second look at its solid granite masonry, its high, slated roof, the absence of windows, and its stout oak door reveals a most ingenious solution to the problem of the resurrectionists or body snatchers.
Coffins were placed within the mort house on a turntable, thus postponing burial until the bodies were unsuitable for sale. (Coffins were removed successively, the maxim um period of storage being three months.) Four independent key-bearers were needed to unlock the oaken door and to genetrate the sliding inner iron door.
It was designed by Captain John Marr of Cairnbrogie and built for £80 Scots by Alexander Wallace and Thomas Smith in 1832, ironically the year of the passing of the Anatomy (Scotland) Act which ultimately solved the problem by ensuring an adequate legal supply of bodies.
The mort house was subsequently used as an ammunition store.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Grampian’, (1986).
