The first scientific evidence corroborating the medieval presence of the "Black Death" in Edinburgh has been identified in DNA present in the plaque on the teeth of a skeleton unearthed during archaeological excavations under St Giles Cathedral in 1981. Story here 👇 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#31DaysOfGraves Day 31: Memento mori This winged skull appears beneath a wall-mounted tablet, in the chancel of St Mary’s in my #OnePlaceStudy parish of Fawsley, “In Memory of Lucy Knightley of Fawsley Esqr. who lyes interr’d near this place. He died unmarried, & left a considerable Sume of mony”

#31DaysOfGraves Day#31 Memento Mori Seven years ago today I spent a fascinating hour or so wandering around Abercorn Kirkyard in West Lothian looking at all the Memento Mori gravestones. Here are a few of the best...

#31daysofgraves #31 Memento Mori A cadaver/transi slab, said to be for Jane Preston, at Stamullen, Ireland, carved with a decomposing corpse in an open shroud, tied at head and foot, c. 1450. Many more photos at the link. www.irishstones.org/place.aspx?p...

Day 31 of #31DaysOfGraves - #MementoMori We're ending this year's annual celebration of the art and heritage of grave memorials with this absolutely stunning 18thC stone from Garvald, East Lothian Thanks to @annaandthedead.bsky.social for curating the themes again this year. Happy Halloween all! 🎃

Burial grounds or memorials—or communities within them—can be researched as #OnePlaceStudies, a brilliant blend of #FamilyHistory and #LocalHistory. If that is something you’d like to learn more about, visit our website for more information. You can also download our PDF guide to one-place studies.

Day 31: Momento Mori Happy Halloween 🎃 #31daysofgraves

What cemetery plants mean: A horticulture extension specialist explains how flowers, trees and other botanical motifs honor those buried beneath #DayOfTheDead #DioDeLosMuertos

Day 30: Colour I am a huge green moss and blue patina enjoyer. York cemetery, North Yorkshire, UK. #31daysofgraves

I forgot this one the other day. #31DaysofGraves - Tree

#31DaysofGraves Day 31: Memento Mori In Cramond churchyard, Edinburgh.

When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there. Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found. Happy Halloween everyone. Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman

#31DaysOfGraves Day 31: Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die"); symbols or tropes acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.The most common motif is a skull, but other motifs include a coffin, hourglass or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. #Edinburgh

#31DaysOfGraves leftovers 1: Malcolm McLaren #HighgateCemetery #London #FreakyFriday #BuffaloGirls

Happy #Halloween week 🎃 If you are looking for something different to do, come along to my free talk this coming Saturday. "Walking in the footsteps of the #Glasgow #Witches" Sat 1 Nov • 1pm • Mitchell Library More info via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-in...

#31daysofgraves #30 colour The grave of Rudolph Nureyev, who died in 1993, in the Russian cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-bois, near Paris. It is a mosaic designed to look like one of the Kilim rugs that Nureyev collected. nureyev.org/rudolf-nurey... mymodernmet.com/rudolf-nurey...

#31DaysOfGraves day 30 colour. Either side of the #Grecian revival church at Ayot St Lawrence are two mausolea, one for Sir Lionel Lyde who commissioned the church and the other for his wife Rachel. This photo was taken at sunset. For those that care #Pentax K20D, SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm kit lens. 1/2

A symbol for charity can be seen on William Birkbeck's headstone in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Australia - Portion 9, Section 16, Grave 9.

#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 Colour. Changing colours and crunchy leaves make for a perfect Autumn walk in Warriston. #Edinburgh #Autumn #WarristonCemetery

#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 - Colour The Clutterbuck family is buried in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Australia - Portion 7A, Section 116, Grave 30. Yellow lichen has made their headstone a standout in the cemetery.

Day 29 of #31DaysOfGraves - Occupation A gravestone erected in 1765 over the shared plot of members of the Society of Coach Drivers in the Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh. These Canongate-based coachmen travelled the Edinburgh to London route, a journey that could take 10 or more days in winter.

#31daysofgraves Day 30 Colour Terracotta wheel head cross Hampstead Cemetery

#31DaysOfGraves Day 30 Colour: The cast iron memorial for Glasgow merchant Alexander Mackenzie at Glasgow Necropolis. Credit to my wee sister for all the Necropolis photos I have posted.

I'm delighted to be presenting on mourning crape as a token of death at the Symbols of Mortality online conference in February 2026. And I'm honored to be among such an absolutely stellar roster of death scholars. Take a look. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/symbols-of... #TheVictorianBookoftheDead

#31DaysOfGraves "Occupation" Grave marker of William Ambrose Hulbert (1832-1882), one of the founders of baseball's National League. He was also president of the Chicago White Stockings team.

Day 28: Column Kensal Green Cemetery, London #31daysofgraves

#31DaysofGraves Day 29 - Occupation Cimitero di Serravezza, Italia Zu Fuße der Marmorberge

'This burying ground is the property of Charles Wilsone, Surgeon in Glasgow 1800' A plaque in the Ramshorn Kirkyard, Glasgow. Occupations on grave markers are everywhere, but they're particularly common in Scotland, a means of asserting status even after death. 1/3 #31DaysofGraves 29: Occupation

'This burying ground is the property of John McAslan, Seedsman, Glasgow' The Ramshorn was the preserve of the city's Georgian professional and merchant classes. Grave markers conveyed status, and the poor were buried without one until relatively recently. #31DaysofGraves 29: occupation

#31DaysOfGraves Day 29 Occupation: John Clark established a calico printing works in what became the village of Bowling, Dunbartonshire. He is buried at Old Kilpatrick Parish Church.

A windmill on the headstone of John Whittowe, the parish miller, at Hilgay, Norfolk, 1891. He's shown unloading the cart and carrying a sack of grain into the mill. #31DaysofGraves 29: occupation

#31daysofgraves #Occupation The Coopers and Gardeners burial places at Old West Kirk in Greenock - removed from their previous location

#31daysofgraves day 29 - occupation. Blacksmith Charles Copnall’s headstone is shaped like an anvil with a hammer resting on top. Inscription in alt text.

#31DaysOfGraves Day 29 - Occupation James Chalmers, bookseller in Dundee, Scotland. Also inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. The Howff, Dundee, Scotland

#31daysofgraves 29. Occupation 🧑‍💼 M. Moya tomb, by M. Benlliure (1921) — San Justo Cem., Madrid 🇪🇸 Moya was a journalist as well as a politician and a fierce defender of freedom of the press and of better working conditions for people. Here, in his tomb, with a sad typesetter ❤️‍🔥 I do love him!

#31DaysofGraves Day 29: Occupation. One of my favourite things in Warriston is the multitude of interesting (& some now obselete) occupations listed on stones. If you would like to see more & are on Facebook, we have a photo album of about 180 different professions. www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...

From the Archive: Theatres and Outdoor Events – Clothing and Leisure in the Coastal Town of Whitby: 1760s to 1910s (1900 words). www.ikfoundation.org/itextilis/th...

Today marks the beginning of #HeritageCareersWeek – a national week of activity to raise awareness of careers in the historic environment sector and tackle misconceptions. Keep an eye on our channels for staff career stories, job-search tips and more 📷

On #InternationalAnimationDay, we're thinking about The Illusionist (2010) - a hand-drawn animation set mostly in Edinburgh, and described by director Sylvain Chomet as a "love letter to the city" 💌 Look out for the Cameo Cinema in the clip below!

#31DaysOfGraves Day 28: Column Price Family of Rock Mount Kinver. Memorial at Holy Trinity Wordsley. May Moore Beetlestone Price (1875-1880), elder sister of famous actress, author and animal rights activist Nancy Price.

This #GreenLibrariesWeek we are celebrating the amazing ecosystems of trees and forests with the Open Shelves display in the General Reading Room. Meet remarkable trees or explore the interconnected life of our woodlands. www.nls.uk/whats-on/ope...

Have you spotted any of these spooky etchings at the places we look after? These witch marks are believed to have turned away evil, providing protection to the building and those who lived or worked within it. Photos: Andreas von Einsiedel and James Dobson

#31DaysOfGraves Day 28: Column Grave monument with pink granite columns at Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester.

#31daysofgraves no 27 The apple #tree Garden of Eden Little Dunkheld

Falls ihr in Wien seid und nicht wisst, wohin am Nationalfeiertag: Der St. Marxer Friedhof wär‘ grad noch hübscher als sonst … #wienliebe #friedhofsliebe #cemetery #vienna

#31daysofgraves 27. Tree 🌳 Cypresses — San Lorenzo Cemetery, Madrid 🇪🇸 These melting cypresses are possibly the most charismatic trees in all of Madrid’s cemeteries 😍 I don't know who is the inhabitant… Gravestone is old and weathered 🙃

#31DaysofGraves Day 27: Säule / Column St. Elisabeth-Kirchhof I #Berlin

#31daysofgraves #column Corinthian columns on the Orkney memorial in Greenock Cemetery. One of the very many documenting losses at #Gallipoli