York Cemetery

York Cemetery, York

Visited January 2017

York cemetery is about a 10-15 minute walk out of the city centre, south of the main attractions and city walls. It was founded in 1837, and is still in use for burials today, although there was a period in the mid-20th century when it fell into neglect, as with so many large Victorian urban cemeteries..


It's grade II* listed, and I reckon that in spring or summer it is a beautiful place, but when I visited on a damp, grey January day over a year ago it had a strange, deserted air to it. Sections of the Victorian part were closed off due to path works, and as it was quite late in the afternoon (for a winter's day, anyway), I rushed round with the odd feeling that I could be locked in at any time. Paranoid, me? So it sounds like a return visit is in order for me, perhaps on a sunny day, and this time I will hope to be able to follow one or more of the self-guided walks available on the cemetery's website