St Mary's Churchyard, Neasden

St Mary's Churchyard, Neasden, London

Visited May 2017

This ancient church in North London was founded in the 10th century, and still contains parts of the Norman and Medieval architecture. Inside the church is the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, a place of Pilgrimage until the 1500s when the statue of Mary was burned during the Reformation. A new statue stands in its place now, and there is also a Holy Well in the church.

Outside, there are some interesting old tombs, mostly Victorian, in both the 'old' and 'new' sections. There's a lot more information about the graveyard here. Particularly interesting is that the older graves may have been marked with wooden crosses rather than carved stones, hence none now survive.

New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh

New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh

Visited June 2017

The New Calton Burial Ground was created as an overspill for Old Calton Burial Ground, half a mile away. 

The graves are, of course, mainly newer than the ones in the older site, but the burial ground has amazing views over the south of the city, including Holyrood Place, Arthur's Seat and out to the Forth in the far distance. It's also the home of bodies disinterred from the old burial ground when Waterloo Place was constructed, so it includes gravestones older than the burial ground itself! The first actual burial (rather than reinterment) on the site was in 1817.

Fascinatingly, there's a circular watchtower near the upper entrance of the burial ground, as a defence against graverobbing. From the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries it had a new purpose, as a house, despite only being 5m in diameter. Sounds perfect to me!

the watchtower