North Leith Cemetery

The cemetery is beside the Water of Leith at Coburg Street, Leith.

Gravestone

No name or date of death known

Unidentified Gravestone

Inscription
on front

[nothing now legible]

Inscription
on back

[nothing now legible]

Scull & Crossbones

Mark Dunn, Westburn, Edinburgh raised the subject of sculls and crossbones on gravestones in the EdinPhoto GuestBook  on October 2, 2005.

I replied:

"Symbols, including tools of trades, were frequently carved on 17th century and early 18th century gravestones.  Sculls and crossbones were common in the South of Scotland: they were reminders of the mortality of man. Hourglasses denoted time passing:  a vertical hourglass for a person had lived a full life and a horizontal one for a person whose life had been cut short.  Trumpets and the angels denote Resurrection.

North Leith Cemetery in Coburg Street dates from the mid-17th century.  It replaced the graveyard beside the North Leith church of St Nicholas (the patron saint of seamen) which was lost due to the building of Leith Citadel in 1856."

About a year later, Jimmy Letham,  South Australia, for providing further information about 'skull and crossbones' headstones.

Jimmy wrote:

"The skull and crossbones used on a gravestone was also a sign that dead man was a Freemason.  You would never see that design on a woman's headstone."

Jimmy Letham, Elizabeth Vale, South Australia:  November 11, 2006

North Leith Cemetery:     Background      Map       More Photos