Did we open the right coffin?
There was an interesting post from Sarah Fraser recently – did the coffin we examined belong to Simon the Fox? It is a double lead coffin, the type Prof Sue Black told us was used when bodies are to be transported a long distance, such as from London to Kirkhill. The other coffins appear to be single layer lead coffins as can be seen from the photos below. These were taken by our architect and Trustee Fred Geddes in the early 1990’s when the restoration project was being planned.
At that time the outer lid of the coffin was bent back, showing how much the coffin had been interfered with and how easy it would have been to place other bones from a graveyard or crypt tidy-up in the coffin. Now that the lid has been pressed flat again we can see the shadow outline of a name plate with a screw hole in each corner. The size of the nameplate...