Understanding Scottish Graveyards

This study takes a historical and interpretive approach to Scotland's graveyards, examines their past and points out the features in them that reflect it. It guides the reader among the stones, discussing types of monument and relates each to its period. It also explains the earlier symbolic carvings, and analyzes the changing fashions in sculpture and inscription. The book's purpose is not only to inspire in the reader an appreciation of the local graveyard. Scotland's graveyards are in peril. Yearly, stones are lost, destroyed by vandals, toppled by gales, and cleared away by overzealous tidiers. Those that are left must be conserved; they must also be described and listed before it is too late, and Betty Willsher devotes a section of her book to explaining aspects of this urgently needed recording work.