A Pirate Laid To Rest

The skull and crossbones gravestone is just one of the things that makes the old graveyard at Kirkandrews on the Galloway coast in SW Scotland is a fascinating place.

There are thousands of wrecks around the coastline of Britain but pirates did not usually merit a marked grave in the local cemetery. This one must have held some honour amongst the locals!

There are a number of other interesting gravestones in the cemetery, some of which have faces, others have intriguing patterns and motifs.

pirate's gravestone

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  1. Pingback: A Pirate Laid To Rest

  2. Crazy tidbits of of beat information from the storyteller:
    Skull and crossbones were used on gravestones as a symbol of mortality – many gravestones from the 17th-18th century have them. That’s why the pirates adopted it – to intimidate other vessels. If you surrendered you had a shot at staying alive esp if you were good for ransom, sale, or joined their crew. Once the red flag was hoisted…. that meant no quarter would be given – all would be killed.

    • Brilliant! Thanks Barbara – I never looked into the reasoning but just assumed it was a pirates grave as there were so many wrecks and so much smuggling etc going on in the area. You learn something new every day 🙂 Thanks again.

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