Cemeteries / graveyards - know any good ones?

Fatamorgana
Fatamorgana Posts: 257
edited April 2012 in The bottom bracket
Now, you road guys get out for more miles over the country than them there mtn bikers, so excuse me if I ask the same question but on different forums as your experiences will likely be a little quite different to theirs:

And it's a strange question maybe, but I do enjoy a good nose-around graveyards; a taphophile.

Anyhow, I know some of the more famous ones such as Highgate and Brooklands, St Paul's and the National Arboretum nr Cannock (there's a German war cemetery there too). Then there's the Goth's spiritual home, Whitby Abbey.

What I'm looking for is some others, not necessarily of famous people, in fact some of my favourites contain no one of note but they're interesting none the less, atmospheric or plain odd or strange.

Then there are some amazing cemeteries overseas, and again, if you have any ideas I'd be keen to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!
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Comments

  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    Birkenhead - its one big graveyard. :D
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
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  • Bozman
    Bozman Posts: 2,518
    Pere Lachaise in Paris
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,312
    Inch Church Graveyard, Near Castle Kennedy - Scotland.
    Blink and you'll miss it. Can't recommend any others 'cos I suffer from acute taphophileaphobia, it's so bad it might kill me one day.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • GoldenBear
    GoldenBear Posts: 120
    The commuting chat forum?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    West Brompton.

    Beautiful.
    _
  • estampida
    estampida Posts: 1,008
    really old 1

    kirk of St nicholas
  • john-e-big-guns
    john-e-big-guns Posts: 489
    Bozman wrote:
    Pere Lachaise in Paris


    Some good ones in Paris...with head stones to many famous names at "Pere Lachaise"..Oscar Wilde..Edith Piaf....Fredrick Chopin....Jim Morrison{The Doors lead singer}...they have coach parties to most of the "dead-end" places compleat with guide sheets from the gatehouse to fined the famous names

    "Cimetiere de Montmartre" Edgar Degas{artist}.... Russian Dancer.. Waslaw Nijinsky...many others
    No Pain; No Gain;

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  • dabber
    dabber Posts: 1,978
    How about Brookwood.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookwood_Cemetery
    “You may think that; I couldn’t possibly comment!”

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  • capt_slog
    capt_slog Posts: 3,973
    We walked around a very old one at Menai Bridge a couple of weeks back. It was on an island out in the Strait and in the middle was a church to St Tsyllio.


    The older I get, the better I was.

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    St. Martin's church in Hereford. It's where most of the SAS graves and / or memorial stones are.
  • ilm_zero7
    ilm_zero7 Posts: 2,213
    Vyšehrad cemetery in prague - stunning, Dvorak's tomb, and fantastic chimes
    http://veloviewer.com/SigImage.php?a=3370a&r=3&c=5&u=M&g=p&f=abcdefghij&z=a.png
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  • SmellTheGlove
    SmellTheGlove Posts: 697
    A little parochial since it's only a few miles from home but there are some corking memorials in this one
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensal_Green_Cemetery

    I was aware of signposts to the German War Cemetery in Cannock Chase on yesterday's ride. There are surely worse places to spend eternity. Like Birkenhead apparently...
    "Consider the grebe..."
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    GoldenBear wrote:
    The commuting chat forum?

    Well done :wink:

    Lots of good ones up North. The Victorian mill owners seemed to like big monuments to themselves. A great one in Leeds is Beckett Street Cemetery opposite the Thackray medical museum which used to be a city workhouse. There are big mass graves for those from the workhouse. It's all very overgrown and atmospheric.

    Undercliffe in Bradford is pretty good too.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • gasman_dave
    gasman_dave Posts: 129
    Eastern Cenotaph Glasgow. Opposite Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Great views but watch out for the junkies.
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    The man who invented the crossword is buried in our towns cemetry. If you stand at the entrance to the church yard his grave is located five down and thirteen across. :lol:
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • Kendal Black Drop
    Kendal Black Drop Posts: 638
    Time for some music: Cemetery Gates
  • JamesB
    JamesB Posts: 1,184
    Zermatt, Switzerland, many tombstones to the great deceased mountaineers.

    Sainte Anne d`Auray, Brittany, basilica, central place for catholic pilgrims and a massive war memorial with
    >200 000 names inscribed on walls around a garden area.

    On a slightly different note though---
    Some very picturesque small garveyards in Welsh borders, atmospheric with old yews and small solid stone built churches, eg Capel Y Ffin Black Mtn, , Cefnllys (near Llandrindod), Discoed (Presteigne) some of oldest yews in UK there 1 500 yr +
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    Tyne Cot.
    http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/tyne-cot/index.html
    A testament to the slaughter of WW1
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • derall
    derall Posts: 2,836
    http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/
    East and West, both of which charge entrance fees, but it's worth it.

    East you can wander at will. It also has the more famous burials; Douglas Adams, George Eliot, Corin Redgrave, Jeremy Beadle, Pat Kanavan, Malcolm Maclaren. Plus the Red Corner - Karl Marx, Paul Foot and a host of other socialists.

    West is only viewable by guided tour (monuments in a dangerous state of repairs). A more concentrated example of Victorian Gothic it is hard to imagine. Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon are must-see if you like your graveyards.
  • derall
    derall Posts: 2,836
    Though if I'd read the OP properly I'd have noted you said you already knew Highgate. Sorry...
  • jc4lab
    jc4lab Posts: 554
    In America you come accross quite a number of Steven King like Pet cemetries..The San Francisco one was one I particularly remember as fairly grand...
    jc
  • jordan_217
    jordan_217 Posts: 2,580
    Just seen the title of this thread and straight away thought about dogging.........
    “Training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.”
  • met
    met Posts: 24
    i opened this post as i was curious.....

    I have no interest in graveyards whatsoever! but as it happens i do know of a really good one in Argentina in Buones Aires, La Recoleta Cemetery. its amazing, got to be quite hard to beat I reckon.

    For scenery Ive just been to the Isle of Skye on holiday and there ia a beautiful graveyard at Carbost i think it was.
    A tiny beautifully manicured place on the lochside with the mountains and sea in the background. Beautiful.
  • attica
    attica Posts: 2,362
    Rolf F wrote:
    Undercliffe in Bradford is pretty good too.

    That was my first thought too, especially a huge Egyptian style tomb with a very Yorkshire name over the door sticks in the memory. Well worth a wander round.
    "Impressive break"

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  • SickAsAParrot
    SickAsAParrot Posts: 212
    OffTheBackAdam wrote:
    Tyne Cot.
    http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/tyne-cot/index.html
    A testament to the slaughter of WW1

    My great grandfather's name is on the monument there, no grave though there wasn't anything left of him to bury after a shell hit him at Paschendael (sp?)

    Was a bit disappointed with the Trafalgar cemetary at Gibraltar, there's only 3 victims of the battle there, most of them were buried at sea.
  • woodnut
    woodnut Posts: 562
    Attica wrote:
    Rolf F wrote:
    Undercliffe in Bradford is pretty good too.

    That was my first thought too, especially a huge Egyptian style tomb with a very Yorkshire name over the door sticks in the memory. Well worth a wander round.

    + another one for Undercliffe, looks like the set for every Goth video you've never seen.
    5458704559_45836a85d2.jpg
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  • The Ors
    The Ors Posts: 130
    Pop over to Normandy & visit the US, Commonwealth & German cemeteries. All very thought provoking. The German one is especially sombre.
  • Fatamorgana
    Fatamorgana Posts: 257
    Thanks everyone.
    Some really good suggestions here and much aprreciated.

    It's odd, but having walked up to the post every day in my local town via the church yard for 10 years, I found myself somehow drawn to them on a recent trip overseas and now I'm quite intrigued in them. A little strange but as others have commented, people do seem to have some favourites even if it's not in their nature to be interested in death / cemeteries.
  • Aggieboy
    Aggieboy Posts: 3,996
    This is probably an interesting one. http://www.westnorwoodcemetery.com/ and http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/site ... ndex.shtml
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Norwood_Cemetery - West Norwood Cemetery is a 40-acre (16 ha) cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and ecological interest.


    As as result of something that happened there in 1987 I was there quite a lot.

    The catacombs are one dark and eery place, I can tell you. I got to know the cemetery gatekeeper rather well. He lived in a house in the cemetery which is probably about 1/3 mile away from the catacombs. One night when we were there with his large alsation dog I asked whether he ever got frightened down there. He told me - The dog is never afraid of anything but once in the dead of night, the dog suddenly stopped in it's tracks, it's ears went back and he ran all the way straight back to the house. I was really sh1t scared. :shock:

    Seem to remember a mausoleum containing a body of a lady in a dress wearing jewellery laid out across a chaise longue. Maybe the voices in my head though! :lol:
    "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, t'would be a pity to damage yours."
  • slowondefy2
    slowondefy2 Posts: 348
    My 'favourite' after a recent Normandy visit was the Canadian War Cemetery ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9ny- ... r_Cemetery ) - partly because it's quite remote compared to the others. All the others are also worth a visit (US, Commonwealth and German alike) - it's interesting to compare how the atmosphere varies between the cemeteries.

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