The Morthouse

This circular stone building, called a morthouse, houses a revolving wheel upon which a coffin would be placed & kept under lock and key. When another body was deposited, the wheel would be turned slightly to accommodate the new coffin. Eventually, when a coffin had been rotated one full revolution, it could safely be buried because the corpse would be sufficiently decomposed as to be of no use to the body-snatchers. (c 1830s) Udny, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.