On the 12th September, as part of the Legacies in Stone Project, Edinburgh World Heritage and the Friends of Greyfriars Kirkyard organised a polychromatic survey of the 1684 John Bayne of Pitcairlie Mausoleum to look for traces of any original paint pigments on the stone. This gave us the opportunity to have a closer look inside the mausoleum at some of the historic graffiti and marks which are normally hidden to the public. There’s the usual attempts at scrawling names into the stonework. However, we also found some intriguing symbols some of which may have characteristics of Christograms or apotropaic marks.
We don’t know the full story of carvings like these and numerous theories abound. The general consensus is that they are (somewhat secretive) Christian symbols, often based on the early Greek alphabet, and were thought to give some protection from evil. They are sometimes referred to as witch marks but counter witch marks would be more precise. In buildings, where such marks have been found, they are often carved around doorways, arches or windows suggesting they are to prevent something malevolent entering through those spaces. But I’ve also seen them in a cave in Derbyshire and even on a prehistoric standing stone in Yorkshire.
One of the most common Christograms is the I, usually carved with a bar through the middle. This is generally thought to be the Greek letter Iota and which is the first letter of Iesous, the Greek name for Jesus.1
Another frequently seen symbol is the double VV, sometimes referred to as a Marian mark as it’s thought to represent The Virgin Mary.2
Then we have the A, I’m going to speculate (wildly) this is Alpha. Being the first letter of the Greek alphabet it is thought to represent the beginning and is often seen on Christograms with its counterpart the last letter Omega. Proclaiming Christ is at the beginning and the end.3
There’s another interesting symbol which appears to be a circle with a cross in it. I wonder if this is the Greek character Theta which is thought to symbolise death4?
So, were these esoteric mason’s marks intentionally written with hidden religious symbols, made when the reformed church took a dim view of openly displaying such decoration. Or were they carved by local cunning folk offering their service to protect from ill will? Or simply meaningless trade initials perhaps of someone’s name? We’ll probably never know – but isn’t life more interesting sprinkled with a little mystery?
Legacies in Stone is a three-year community heritage project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, running from January 2026 to January 2029.
Further Reading
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/warding-off-evil-with-witch-marks
https://www.apotropaios.co.uk/marian-marks.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christogram