Families in Invergordon were left “shocked” and in tears after a vandalism attack at the town’s graveyard.
Seven gravestones at Roskeen Cemetery were covered with graffiti on the morning of Friday, July 12.
18-year-old resident Allan Marwick was riding his motorbike near the graveyard when a man told him graves had been vandalised.
Allan told the Press and Journal: “I went back home and told my mum, and she told me to go back to see how bad it was.
“I returned to the graveyard and realised that one of them was my granny and grandad’s grave.”
Allan’s neighbour Rena also had her husband’s grave headstone covered with graffiti.
The 78-year-old explained she started to cry when she saw the damage.
“I didn’t think there were people in the world capable of doing something like that,” she said.
Invergordon families ‘disgusted’ after graveyard vandalism attack
Allan thinks everyone in the Easter Ross town is “quite shocked” after the incident.
He and his mum Gillian had spent around three hours cleaning their family graves on Tuesday, just days before the vandalism attack.
He continued: “I find it quite disgusting actually, because the cemetery is a place for people to pay their respect to their loved ones.”
His mum, Gillian, 57, said she feels “disgusted.”
“I feel disgusted. I don’t know how people could do this; it’s hideous”, she said.
On a happier note, she remembers her parents John and Anne as “great people with great sense of humour.”
Allan, who never met his grandparents, added: “My mum has told me many stories about them, and she said they were such a happy couple, always laughing, friendly and loving to everyone.”
‘I sat by the gravestone and started to cry’
78-year-old Rena Fraser lost her husband of 56 years less than two years ago.
She said she could not believe it when she saw the graffiti on his beloved partner’s gravestone.
She told the Press and Journal: “It’s disgusting, “I didn’t think there were people in the world capable of doing something like that; it’s horrible.”
Mrs Fraser continued: “It’s just so hard; it’s unreal. When Allan told me I went straight to the graveyard, sat by the gravestone and started to cry.
“I went back home, and I thought: ‘this cannot have happened.’”
She phoned her sons at work, and they came home and helped clean their father’s gravestone.
“It’s not clean but at least it’s better than it was. But the writing has got to be all done again,” she explained.
As she spoke to The P&J on the phone, she got a text from Mackay’s Memorial Headstones confirming they would clean and restore the letters on the stone.
“I’m so pleased and so grateful; isn’t that really considerate? It puts a light into the end of this black tunnel,” she said.
Remembering her husband, Mrs Fraser said: “He never harmed anybody, you wouldn’t expect anyone to do that to him.”
The 78-year-old added she actually feels sorry for those who committed the crime.
She said: “I feel sorry for them, there’s something wrong with them, there’s something wrong with them, isn’t it? There must be.”
Police appeal for information following vandalism in Invergordon graveyard
Police Scotland’s Facebook reads: “We are appealing for information following reports of vandalism in the Invergordon area.
“Between Thursday, 11 and Friday, 12 July, 2024 we received reports a number of grave headstones within Rosskeen Cemetery, Invergordon had been spray painted.
“Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”