Feelings of panic after visiting Highgate Cemetery

[Therunecaster]

Good evening

I visited Highgate Cemetery last summer and the catacombs have played on my mind ever since. Normally I love a wander round a cemetery but on this occasion it has left me feeling anxious about death. I don't know if it was the catacombs or the mausoleums or just the wildness of it but I wish I hadn't gone. Has anyone else experienced this feeling?

It is deeply peculiar. One is a site of imprisonment, forced labour and genocide kept as a museum so that we don’t forget what humans at their worst are capable of. One is a pleasant Victorian cemetery.

I’ve visited Dachau, and when I lived in London and was on maternity leave, I often used to take baby DS for a walk there while he napped in the afternoons. There’s no comparison at all

Sometimes it just gets to you. I usually like a mooch around an attractive old graveyard and do it a lot. But a few years ago I was in Venice and decided to drop off at San Michele, the cemetery island that serves Venice. It was a horrible experience! Nothing very picturesque but miles and miles of grave stones, lots with those sort of photos on the marble. Lots of carved skulls. I mean, I used to work in archaeology, this stuff doesn't usually get to me, but it really depressed me and I felt the atmosphere very oppressive. I couldn't wait for the next vaporetto!

Nunhead cemetery is another wild place with beautiful old stones.

I've been twice. The first time was an autumn afternoon, I was booked on the tour, and it was pouring with rain throughout.
I thought it was really interesting. But then I went across the road to the other side, and something about being alone over there, in the rain, gave me the creeps.

Second time I went was mid-summer, a really hot day, with my mum who wanted to do the tour. A completely different experience! No creepiness at all.

I agree about photos at Auschwitz. I plan to visit and when I do, will take no photos at all. My reason to visit is because three of my ancestors died there.

I was responding to CrickeyAlmighty's post about her being traumatised at Auschwitz. I was indicating that my daughter was in a position of trauma there too being abandoned there. Is this a problem?

Waterlow Park not far from Highgate cemetery is a lovely peaceful place and might act as an antidote. Agree about Abney Park being really fascinating. Also Bonhill Fields , where I stumbled upon William Blake , Daniel Defoe and a daughter - I think - of Oliver Cromwell.

Ah thats lovely of you! Thank you 😊 💐

Abney Park has the grave of one of the 18thc abolitionist and formerly enslaved writer Olaudah Equiano's daughters, Joanna Vassa, and the first English policeman to be shot dead on duty. And yes, Bunhill is also brilliant -- John Bunyan is buried there, too.

For those of you who do love an old graveyard, bunhill fields is beautiful, it’s really small and it’s a non conformists graveyard. It’s not used as a graveyard anymore but lovely just to sit there and watch the world go by.

@EmeraldRoulette you can also see puffins for a good chunk of the year at Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire

yes - I am a very sensitive soul and thought long and hard about going .I did go with my DH who is a human I feel safe with. but yes I was deeply deeply disturbed.

I had psychosis years later and the holocaust was a major feature and wa all a huge feature in my breakdwon. fro some reason I kept saying I am worse than the guards at Aushwitz. I was very verymentally unwell.

I live near here!

Same here. I went on a freezing cold snowy day and found it a bit creepy. But went back on a boiling hot day and it was absolutely beautiful. I found it very calming. It’s an absolutely fascinating place. The children’s section was open to the public the first time I went and it was sad but so peaceful.

yes I literally cannot understand people visiting concentration camps, ghoulish and unnecessary. we all can understand without visitating. I know it would affect me badly too and yes it’s part of my history too