Isn’t a walk around an old cemetery fascinating?

[CormoranStrike]

Today I found two amazing names - a man called Pelham Brodie and a woman called Dalmeny Edmonstone Black - plus a confederate soldier who died leading his men in battle in Kentucky and a naval officer who survived being ice-locked in his ship for two years and who died with his crew when they attempted to walk to Canada to escape.

All this in Edinburgh!

St Enedoc's Church by Daymer Bay in Cornwall is my favourite. It's right next to the beach and has a slab outside the front to leave bodies that died at sea. It has the youngest female firefighter buried there. I've said to DH and family that I would love to be buried there, it's my favourite part of the world.

The one in Tynemouth is fantastic. And I found a grave to a man who had held the "lanthorn" during the burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna!

I struggled to learn to read, but eventually picked it up from gravestones

And Glasnevin in Dublin is fascinating too - I had an incredible older gentleman as a guide, and he was just fantastic. I'm tempted to go to Dublin again just so I can go back for more...

Yes! I love a grave yard or cemetery.

The only thing I miss about my kids not being at primary is the walk twice a day through the cemetery next door.

My Great Grandma is buried with her first husband (my Grandmas Dad) and she outlived him by over 40 years (20 year age gap) and outlived her second husband by 19 years. I didn’t realise how long she had outlived her first husband until the headstone was laid.

GrumpyOldMare I used to pop into Arnos Vale cemetery sometimes on my way to or from school. It was a good place to get conkers too. My friends house used to back onto the cemetery and we would look over it when it was dark, and she would tell me about 'seeing things' in there at night. She was very dramatic and a bit of storyteller.

Oh @BentNeckLady that's heartbreaking. How can they have coped with such loss? I think, if you were financially independent, remaining a spinster might have been a less painful way to have spent your life.

The saddest in our local cemetery is an old wooden cross, in the most neglected corner, with just a first name roughly carved into it.

I love to walk around a cemetery. I find it quite peaceful, it can be very sad but I like to think as it's nice that these people are being thought of all those years later, although I didn't know them I like the thought that someone is thinking of them.

I visited some old family graves in the Christmas holidays but they are so worn away and crumbling now, they are made of sandstone.

It got me wondering if we should make small metal plaques just with the names to put in place of the old ones so the people don't get forgotten, we couldn't afford to repair the original ones, or whether once tour gravestone is worn away to nothing that's it.

HebeMumsnet so basically a medieval stone Mumsnet thread on someone who flounced in a rather final manner?

Whilst pregnant with dc2 I used to walk dc1 round the local graveyard looking for name inspiration.
Even now I still opt to walk thru one if enroute iyswim

Oh good lord, was that someone lost on the Franklin expedition, Cormoran? The search for the North West Passage in 1845?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition

I love a nice walk through a grave yard! There is one grave that I pass a bit more quickly than others, the stone reads “I’m watching and waiting for you.”

I absolutely love them. Ever since I was a child. My ancestors graves are in an old country cemetery near where I grew up. The headstone is dated since 1847. My grandparents were the last to be buried there in the late nineties. It's a very leafy cemetery with lots of old trees and next to a field with a river at the bottom of the field.

I've been to Pere Lachaise before and it's fascinating.

Glasnevin Cemetary in Dublin is nice too.

@GrumpyOldMare that's the one I am talking about in my previous post

Yes @tressilianaStone - HMS Terror

A wander through a cemetery is a highly underrated thing. I find them endlessly fascinating.

The saddest one I know is a huge tomb in the church at Croome - built by a rich gentleman for his wife & newborn baby. It was her 5th child. Imagine having 4 children, thinking you're home dry and then dying in childbirth with the fifth?! For some reason, it gets me every time.

The Glasgow Necropolis is awesome. If unbelievably spooky. I'd love a wander around Highgate.

The cemetery on the Isle of Skye is a stunning spot - Flora Macdonald's grave is here and I always thought how lucky she was to be laid to rest in such a beautiful place overlooking the sea...

How astonishing to just come upon that. I recently saw a documentary about the Franklin expedition, as they believe they've found one of the ships. It's spinechilling stuff.

I used to work next door to a church graveyard. I have a rather unusual name and there was a grave I could see through my window that had my name on it! Used to worry me a tad!

@GrumpyOldMare and @Anonanonanariston. I think Arnos Vale is where my DD would like to get married. Is there a decommissioned Georgian church there?

My friends house used to back onto the cemetery

How lovely!

I think Arnos Vale is where my DD would like to get married. Is there a decommissioned Georgian church there?
arnosvale.org.uk/weddings/

@Moonflower12 yes! A friend got married there last summer. Lovely location. Then reception at Paintworks over the road afterwards.

that's the one I am talking about in my previous post*

@Anonanonanariston I did wonder if you were talking about the same place!

My local cemetery has a headstone with the names of a woman, her daughter and her grand-daughter (the grand-daughter died fairly young I think). No men mentioned at all and the inscription on the plinth reads "Phenomenal Women." Every time I pass it I wonder what made them phenomenal and I wish I could learn all about them. Google hasn't helped so far but I'll keep trying!

Where I live there's an old gravestone which says 'Here lies Hannah Smith, a pious but not loving wife.'