Opticians and graveyards

This morning I took Mrs T and her friend to the nearby market town of Inverurie where they were to receive their annual eye MOT. I had plenty of time to indulge myself in a favourite occupation, a wander around the town graveyard.
The ancient, but still used, graveyard in Inverurie lies in a bend of the river Urie and is full of interest. 
Two large earth mounds projecting above the gravestones are together known as the Bass of Inverurie, and once supported a motte and bailey castle built by the Earls of Garioch in the 1100s. The castle was used as a base by Robert the Bruce before his defeat of the Earl of Buchan in May 1308 at the Battle of Inverurie.
A little to the west of the Bass there is group of four carved Pictish symbol stones dating from the dark ages. Later they were built into the walls of the now demolished medieval church which once served the community that developed around the Bass.
Nearby there are a pair of mort-stones that were once used to protect graves from the resurrection men in the 19th century. And if that isn't enough, there is the gravestone of Marjorie Elphinstone. Marjorie died in the early 1600s. She was buried but a day when grave robbers dug up her coffin in search of valuables. They found her still alive and fled in terror.  Marjorie climbed out the grave and walked back to her home where she knocked on the door, much to the surprise of her husband, Walter Innes, and other grieving relatives. Marjorie lived another 15 years before dying for real in 1622.
On our way home we called in at Foveran Parish church where the clouds of snow drops are putting on a spectacular show, as can be seen in the "extra".