Glasgow Necropolis
Visited September 2012
The
Glasgow Necropolis is the rather glorious name given to the main
Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, located right by Glasgow Cathedral. It
was opened in 1832 as a garden cemetery, although the statue of John
Knox which looks over the cemetery was already in place then. The
cemetery is on a shallow hill, with the main mausoleums to the great and
the good at the top. Parts of the cemetery seem rather modern and, in
that Scots way, a bit dour, but there are some splendid carvings and
monuments to be seen. Many of Glasgow's great and good from the
Victorian and Edwardian periods are here, and it's easy to spend a few
hours wandering around the site - even on a sunny summer's day it wasn't
very busy. Parts of it are rather landscaped - at the top of the hill
it's all mown lawns and fancy tombs, while at the bottom it's more
overgrown (although not nearly as much as in some cemeteries I've
visited, not by a long shot).
The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis run regular tours of the site, and there's also a heritage trail, available on this site https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8104, which is well worth following.
Team
up a visit to the cemetery with a visit to the Cathedral and to St
Mungo's Museum of Religious Life for a full day out and a spot of
spiritual awakening too!
No comments:
Post a Comment