Mort-Safe In Alloway Auld Kirk
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Mort-Safe In Alloway Auld Kirk by Mary and Angus Hogg 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
Mort-Safe In Alloway Auld Kirk
Image: © Mary and Angus Hogg Taken: 18 Mar 2009
In the early 19th century, fresh bodies were of great value to the university medical schools of the time. Grave robbers used to dig up newly buried bodies and sell them to the schools. Presumably, not too many questions were asked about the source of the corpses. One way to deter the grave robbers was to protect the coffin with a mort-safe. This heavy iron frame was buried with the coffin, and then removed when the body had decayed enough to be of no value. Mort-safes could be used over again and again. To see Ayr’s other surviving mort-safe, look at Image
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
55.427928
Longitude
-4.638885