John Cruden, taylor of Cairness

Lonmay Old Kirkyard has a fine collection of gravestones. These include the magnificent mural monument commemorating John Cruden, taylor (sic) in Cairness who died in 1733. The curly haired putti at the top are playing trumpets above a verse from Corinthians 1 'The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible'. The inscription on the main part of the stone has eccentric spelling and lettering but the standard of workmanship, probably that of a local craftsman, is outstanding. The mortality symbols below the inscription are winged hour glasses and a skull, reinfircing the inscription below them, 'A time to live and a time to die'.