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

[JuvenileBigfoot]

Told a friend I went for a walk in a local cemetery. She thinks it's creepy and disrespectful. I think it's a nice quet place to take a walk.

Admittedly I also like looking at old headstones, but I feel like reading the names and dates is acknowledging that person's life and is not disrespectful.

The cemetery in question is old, and no longer accepts burials but is open to the public. However, I've also walked around open cemeteries.

What do you think? Creepy ot not?

It’s your friend that’s weird.

I regularly walk in Sheffield General
Cemetary. It's a fabulous peaceful place and I like remembering my Dad. He isn't buried there, but we used to walk there together

Not disrespectful or weird, no

In the 1800s when many were established they were designed so that people went for walks and even took carriage rides to show off in some, with the grandest graves at the top of the hill. They were treated very much like parks.

It's not weird . They are municipal areas , and either belong to the council , or the church .

I find it creepy but that’s me, I totally understand that other people enjoy looking at old headstones and find it peaceful (my mum used to live going round an old cemetery.)

It is not disrespectful at all!

I think they are important due to the lichen too which is good for the environment and wildlife and an indicator of pollution (again don't think I have invented this).

I always do this! So fascinating reading headstones, snippets of other people's stories frozen in time

Not creepy at all. I'd love to visit Highgate cemetery one day...

I grew up near one that was created in the 1850s. It’s a fascinating place, full of graves old and new. It’s a really peaceful place to go for a walk.

I do it all the time. Your friend needs some creepy weird in her life.

What about Highgate then, they do yours around it!

Tours

We walk to our DC's school and one of the paths is through a cemetery. The school is right next to it too. It is very interesting and very calm and lots of nature. There is a cholera grave in there plus a Quaker cemetery. I don't see the disrespect?

Arnos Vale in Bristol? - just driving past it as I read your comment!
I'm not the driver I hasten to add.
I love cemeteries, they are so interesting and thought provoking and I feel close to history and past generations of people and their lives. Opposite of disrespectful.

This is true. They were pleasure gardens for the living to visit dead.

I love cemeteries (as you may guess from my username) and visit them regularly, wherever I go. Fine for a walk and to look at the graves - it's nice to pay respects even to people you don't know - but not for a bike ride or a family picnic or a ball game (which you do sometimes see people doing).

The Friends of Wrexham Cemetery recently organised an Easter Egg Hunt in their cemetery which had to be cancelled after a media / local backlash: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68694676

Oooops sorry Arnos Vale not in Clifton!

Personally on my own I'd find it creepy, but I don't have a problem understanding why other people would find it quiet and peaceful. I don't think it's disrespectful to have a quiet walk there but I can also understand why others might think it is.

I love walking in graveyards.

Death is part of life, so I don't think it's healthy to make graveyards no-go spaces unless you're burying a loved one, or visiting their grave.

Its not disrespectful at all.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ,,,