Location
Kirklands area of Banchory near the East Church
Banchory
OS Map Reference
NO 707 958
Date
1829
Description
A circular white harled 2 story tower. Conical slated roof with round finial, a lum (for a fire to keep watchers warm) and bellcote (for bell to raise the alarm). Recently restored by the Banchory Rotarians. The warning bell is dated 1664 and probably came from an early church on the site, established as a missionary base by St Ternan around 490AD.
Related Information
From http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/highlightacp.html RCAHMS
Watch houses and watch towers recall the macabre practice of grave robbing or body snatching, when newly buried bodies were removed from graves and sold to medical schools for use in anatomy classes. They were built to shelter and provide a lookout point for those guarding the burial ground from such depredations. In many places, societies were formed whose members undertook night-time guard duties for perhaps six weeks after a burial, receiving a fee from the family of the deceased..........
The activities of the resurrectionists reached their peak in the 1820s. The grisly activity was brought to an end by the 1832 Anatomy Act, which made available for dissection the bodies of workhouse paupers whose relatives did not claim the body for burial. Many watch houses therefore date from between 1820 and 1830.
From, The Historic Kirkyards of Aberdeenshire, A Survey Report, Aberdeenshire Council 1998: Tombstones : There are approximately 49 recumbent tombstones, of which 11 are decorated. There are hundreds of upright tombstones, the
majority being 19th -century in date. The watch-house, reputed to date from 1829, although it has all the charms of an earlier date, has recently undergone a complete renovation, with the walls being re-harled in French lime. The appearance is excellent. A notable design feature of the watch-house is the symmetrical arrangement of a chimney on one side and a
bellcote on the other. The plain gabled mausoleum, a little to the S. of the watch-house, has a lintel dated 1775 with
the initials J.D. / M.A. . .............. Internally there can be glimpsed a very fine stained glass window. A stone used for a corner quoin was once part of a Celtic cross. There are many open enclosures to local landowning families within the yard, though none is of a particularly interesting design calibre.
Era
1800s
Information Source
The Historic Kirkyards of Aberdeenshire A Survey Report, Aberdeenshire Council 1998
Related Artefacts
Categories
Photographer
- Jim Henderson
Unavailable Data
- Iconography
- Creator
- External Links
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