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?

My aunt used to love reading headstones and imagining what people were like. So when she died we put a quote on her headstone that might make a passerby stop and ponder about her too. It'd be a shame if people didn't wander round and see it.

There's a headstone in my local cemetery that had the man's name and then "he was a fine fellow". What a lovely tribute!

Perfectly normal. I walk around our local graveyard once or twice a month. We have a large graveyard at our village Church, (10 minutes walk from me,) and some graves/gravestones go back to the mid 1700s! I do wonder what life was like in this little village when this person was alive - and when they died.

I do, it's the only decent green space near my office. I do tend to stick to the paths and will stay well away from the building if there's a funeral happening but otherwise don't see an issue.

Nor creepy or disrespectful at all. If fact I think it's the opposite looking at headstones and thinking about the people under them is very respectful.

was just going to say this - the big victorian municipal cemeteries were specifically designed for people to visit and have picnics etc.

Also in honour of your username, and because a few people have mentioned Highgate cemetery, I honestly can't recommend the tour they do there enough, probably one of the most interesting things I've ever done (and they refer specifically to the graves featured in the Ink Black Heart).

You can do a tour of Highgate cemetery. It is absolutely fascinating. There is a huge cemetery in Paris which is well worth a visit. You can walk around a cemetery without being disrespectful.

I hope your friend has never been on the tube or walked around London generally (hundreds of mass plague burial sites), or through the various fields that might have been Civil War battlefields, or through her local church (people buried in the crypt) if she's squeamish about being near dead bodies....

We live near one of the magnificent 8 cemeteries in London and have enjoyed walking around it for many years. The only person who has ever expressed a negative opinion on this is my mother,

I am so slow at posting I cross posted with lots of people.

Pere Lachaise cemetery is indeed worth a visit, as is Bagneux.

Sorry typo, magnificent seven!

I agree with you OP. Cemeteries are part of our social history and are important records of who lived before us. We can learn so much from this. I went on a guided tour of one of the largest cemeteries in my city and it was fascinating and very moving. Seeing whole rows of ‘guinea graves’ and those of local VIPs and people who contributed to the city in many different ways, was a revelation, as was learning more about the different architectural designs and symbols on gravestones and monuments. I think it’s sad that with cremations becoming the norm, we have much less to see and learn about. I’m an atheist and an Orthodox Jew by heritage, but if I come across a churchyard or cemetery and have time, I will walk round and sometimes touch a stone and say the name of the person and that they are remembered.

There's a country park near us where they have memory trees. Made me weep reading the plaques.

I've walked round a few cemeteries looking at the beautiful Victorian gravestones.

Completely normal. The strange thing is that cemeteries are usually teeming with LIFE! I mean insects, birds, etc. I suppose it is because there is grass, trees, water, yet very few people go there. I love cemeteries and not in any sort of macabre way. You have history there, park sculptures, quiet, solitude, nature. What is there not to like?

I love this.
I lost a dear friend just over a year ago and feel a lot of people, who did not know him, thought the loss was less as he was elderly - not so!
I talk about him all the time - talk to him when I find things around our home that he shared with us (he was a very kind and generous man) and speak with his friends and neighbours regularly as we all miss him.
His name is used with DH and both the DDs every week too.
He was a keen grower so he lives on as the seeds he so kindly shared grow again this year.

I remember going on holiday to the top of Scotland as a young child of about 10 and I was fascinated by the size of the gravestones in some old cemeteries there. Also often there were two wives buried with one DH. The first wife had often died very young in childbirth then DH remarried and both he and new wife shared the grave with the first wife. My older sister's DH is buried as that was what he wanted. He fixed at 41 of a massive heart attack with no warning. My sister remarried 8 years later. I have not asked but I do wonder if she will be buried with her first DH, cremated and ashes buried with the first DH or she will be cremated and ashes put with second DH. I can't imagine them all being buried together, although I do know she bought a double plot at the time.

I forgot to add that, when visiting a foreign city, I usually try to include a visit to the cemetery. My favourite of all was Vienna, although it is slightly inconvenient to get to by public transport (though not difficult at all). The English Cemetery (read: non-Catholic) in Rome is so interesting and has Shelley, Keats and many European names, including Iranians and Russians.

Nope not creepy at all, I do this too, love a peaceful cemetery

Not at all creepy or disrespectful. In the depths of my misery of my non sleeping baby DS, the cemetery near us was a peaceful place that extended my 3x per day walks (he would only nap in motion).
That place was one of the places I felt sane! I’m sure anyone in there dead wouldn’t have minded!

The big Victorian ones are designed to be places for people to walk round and as a member of the friends group of our local one, we would be delighted if you and others came to walk round it.

Your friend is odd.

Not creepy, weird or disrespectul at all. I enjoy walking around my local cemetery and realising that each person buried there had a different life journey. It's a crazy thought. It's also a great place to reflect and collect your thoughts. In fact, my local cemetery is a short cut to a main shopping centre, so it's often got people walking through just to get to that. Your friend is the weird one.

Not disrespectful or creepy at all. Cemeteries, particularly old ones, are fascinating. I highly recommend Brompton Cemetery for a wander if you’re ever in south west London.

Normal here. I used to look round graveyards with my cousin, reading the names and dates. And we used to walk to school through one too.

It still fascinates me and when we go to Whitby I spend a lot of time reading the graves. I also sit in a graveyard quite often waiting for DS to finish football. I take a book and read and it’s the most peaceful place. It’s nice to think in 100 years someone might be walking past my headstone and read who I was.

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.

That. The Glasgow Necropolis is amazing for the seafaring and travelling history of those buried there. It's a wonderful atmospheric place.

I actually seek out centuries when I'm travelling to places that used to be part of the empire. The ones in Kolkata, Darjeeling and Penang come to mind. The gravestones tell their own stories (often tragic) of the lives lived and lost back then.

It's not as famous as Highgate, but I work near Bunhill Fields which is just north of the Barbican and was a non conformist burial ground started in the 1600s - it's a fascinating place.

It also has some nice benches to sit with a sandwich and look out for wildlife 😊