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Fenwick Parish Church, Ayrshire
Most Christian churches are built facing east/west which probably explains the odd angle of the church to its grounds. Note the guard posts at the gates, built so that families could protect their dead from the resurrectionists. 
Resurrectionists? Body snatchers, who sold the dead bodies stolen from graveyards to the university in Glasgow to be used to train future doctors in anatomy. You may have heard of Burke & Hare in Edinburgh. Their plans were simpler; they created their own cadavers… 
From ground level looking north (the left-hand side in the above photo) showing the door with the scold's bridle and the date plaque on the wall and over the door. 
A scold's bridle? Also known as a brank or gossip's bridle. It was used to punish women who were known to be gossips or who offended others with inappropriate or hateful talk. Plans to re-introduce it in Scotland if the people vote for independence are being strongly denied. So far. 
This is a feature of many Scottish churches and is usually the entrance to private pews upstairs in the church for the use of the local lord and his lady. Naturally, being true Christians, they wouldn't have wanted to mix with the peasantry on the ground floor.  The images shown on this website are reduced and compressed .jpg versions of much larger images. These versions are ideal for showing the quality and character of 197 aerial photography's work. Full-sized files for licensed commercial use are generally of at least 5,000 pixels wide and as you would expect they all show a great deal more detail and clarity than website-quality versions. Click this line to view the Image Quality Sample page All of the photographs, logos, graphics and text on this website are Copyright © Alan Mackie and all Moral Rights are asserted Click this line to read this website's copyright information page 
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