Pencaitland: The winged skull
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Pencaitland: The winged skull by Martyn Gorman as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Pencaitland: The winged skull
Image: © Martyn Gorman Taken: 9 Oct 2008
This winged skull, probably originally carved on an old tombstone, is built into the outside wall of Pencaitland Parish Church. The winged skull is a relatively rare symbol on Scottish tombstones from the 17th century and later. It was intended as an emblem of mortality to remind the living that they too must die. Most winged skulls have wings of a feathery nature but this one is clearly based on the wings of a bat.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
55.91086
Longitude
-2.892601