Scottish Mortsafes

People often tag me with photos of mortsafes on social media wondering if I’ve ever heard of them or seen one in person.

Long story short, mortsafes are not common in the USA. Henry Ford’s grave features a fancy one, but in his case, it was to thwart people who might ransom his corpse, not sell it to a medical college.

So I was excited to see these famous mortsafes in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirkyard.

The plaque for one of them explains a mortsafe’s purpose quite nicely:

“This iron mortsafe was placed over the grave to prevent grave-robbers from digging up the body for sale to the anatomy classes in the medical school.

Many other measures were taken in the 18th and 19th centuries to prevent this repulsive trade, which continued until the anatomy act was passed in 1832.

Restored in 2010 by the Greyfriars Kirkyard Trust with support from the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust.”

Have you ever seen a mortsafe? By the way, I’ve seen it spelled “mort safe” as well as “mortsafe.” Since the plaque uses the portmanteau version, I’m sticking with that spelling!Meer informatie