To think it's not weird, creepy or disrespectful to go for a walk around a cemetery

I think it's extremely respectful to the dead. I often on cycle rides stop for a break and a stroll if I see an old cemetery.
Last year one gravestone was of a very young man killed in WW1. It just said his ship was mined (blown up).
It took me down a big rabbit hole of research and learning about where he was at the time (Russia) Unfortunately the records came to a full stop for several reasons but for a few weeks I talked about that young man to other people and thought about his life and his family's.
It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gone in for a walk. I think it's nice.

If headstones weren't meant to be read they wouldn't have inscriptions on them!

We often visit cemeteries when we go abroad - Pere Lachaise and the old Jewish cemetery in Prague were so interesting

It is fine.

Me and my mum visit her parent's plot a couple of times a year. We takes the dogs (it is a beautiful memorial woodland), and also have a look at other plots. Many have trees on that families can buy and have planted, and it is nice to see how much bigger they are year on year.
One year, we went just after Xmas, and a lot of plots had decorations on. One had a lit up 'Ho Ho Ho'. It made us laugh, but maybe there was an in joke somewhere with the deceased about it.

What I have always found a bit distasteful is the goths who go to Whitby and drape over graves for photos. Look, but don't touch.

Not. It’s peaceful, quiet and somehow feels safe (ish). I read the headstones too. My father and grandparents are buried/ashes are there.

Dead bodies are everywhere underground anyway, over the millennia, maybe under your house just deeper down.

Graves are not creepy, that is a sad attitude I find the ones with pics on particularly interesting.

Highgate Cemetery is well worth a visit. Incredibly peaceful, and a beautiful place to be buried.

All that time and thought and money gone into engraving head stones - it is disrespectful not to go and read them

I feel an immense sense of peace in cemeteries, especially old ones. I love looking at the old names and family relationships. It's something I've done since I was a child and I don't see it as creepy at all, as long as you're quiet and respectful.

I find it lovely to look at all the old gravestones.

I find them fascinating.

But would you take a short cut home through a cemetery when it's dark...or Halloween?

Well, virtually every great poet in history has done it, and quite a lot of visual artists too….

Not at all creepy.

They say you die twice:

Once when you take your last breath and once when someone says your name for the last time/ last time you are remembered.

Where my dad is buried, they have a day of the year where people are invited to go around and say out loud a name on a grave. I think it's kinda lovely

I used to live near a cemetery and walked there often. There's a big field next to it so I walked my dog in the field then we used to sit on a bench in the cemetery. I obviously didn't let my dog crap in there or go near the head stones. We kept to the paths walking through and by the bench. My dog was kept on a lead at all times. The council encouraged people to respectfully walk in and around the cemetery in the day it was locked at night. People walking in the cemetery actually reduced the amount of antisocial behaviour and damage in the cemetery. There's a volunteer group that keeps it nice now and they are still encouraging people to walk and sit in the cemetery. Part of it is an old victorian and onwards cemetery and part is still used.

My grandma used to live in a road facing the wall of West Norwood Cemetery in South London, where she is now buried. As teenagers my friend and I would go for a walk there and explore the vaults in the Greek Orthodox section.

We like walking around cemeteries, it’s interesting.

I find them peaceful and grounding, not creepy at all. The dead can't hurt us.

I did it often when I lived across from one. My DD (6yo) loved it also! We would read the names and dates and DD would admire some of the flowers etc.

Where we live now has a small cemetery, no path going through it. So we’ve only been once and probably won’t go as often!

This thread made me think about Highgate Cemetery and I found out they have guided tours and there is a Tripadvisor page for London cemeteries.

Yes, I've been ,,,

As another poster said, as long as there isn't a funeral/burial/internment in progress (just out of respect for the families privacy) there is nothing wrong with walking around a cemetery. When I visit my parents graves, it's actually nice to see other people knocking about and we always say a quiet hello to each other.

shagged against the headstones
Ah, like Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin. Bless.

Op, I find graveyards peaceful, calming and interesting, actually. Nothing weird about spending time in one.

I used to live opposite a cemetery and used it all the time. It is a big one with trees and open areas as well as the graves. I used to go read a book there on sunny days in the summer, and it was the dog's regular walk. Lots of people were always there, cycling, reading, walking etc. I always liked that it was a place where the present and the past met, rather than somewhere to hide away people who were once here. Obviously, it was important to be respectful and not, for example, walk the dog right through a group of people gathered for a burial, but for anyone with any self-awareness, it wasn't hard to avoid things like that.

I walked the dog there at night too, but I did find that rather creepy. There were small bushes dotted throughout the graves and they used to move in the wind, looking a little like people bent over from distance in the dark, which could be a little freaky. Then one night I was walking with the dog looking across the graveyard, and I saw a "bush" move behind a grave, except then it stood up and walked off, a bit like it had come up from the grave. Nearly gave me the fright of my life. When I walked on towards the gate (at speed!), I realised it was someone who had been lighting a candle there and I hadn't seen them from the angle I was approaching. But even so, after that the dog and I went for an evening walk elsewhere.

Some of the major ones in and around London have tours!

People put those stones up so they would be read in perpetuity, you are remembering them by doing so. Also, they can be havens for wildlife and important social green spaces (the joggers etc) I actually find them (especially the old ones) very peaceful and I think cemetery buffs would be most respectful of eg a funeral in progress.

Friend wrong, you right.