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Kirkintilloch: entrance to the Auld Aisle graveyard

This 18th century gateway to the Auld Aisle graveyard is surmounted by a watchhouse and a belfry. The watchhouse, reached by steps built into the arch of the gateway, was intended to provide shelter to people guarding newly buried people against grave robbers. In the early 19th century there was a great shortage of corpses for anatomists and grave robbers, or resurrection men as they were called, made a living by stealing the newly dead and buried. The bell in the belfry may have been used to call for assistance or it may have housed the deid or mort bell which was tolled at funerals.