St. Augustine’s Church, Derry/Londonderry

The gates of St. Augustine’s Churchyard were locked, so I wasn’t able to walk around inside, but I had to take a photo of the churchyard.

Read Full Post »

I have a bit of a reputation

I started this blog three years ago this month, and in that time, I think it’s safe to say that I have established a reputation for my interest in cemeteries. It meant that while we were in Ireland, a number of people saw me in cemeteries, camera in hand, and commented with some variation on “I expected to find you here.” Anytime we passed a cemetery, no matter how far in the distance, I was immediately informed. So here are some of the shots of cemeteries as we made our way across Ireland.

Read Full Post »

Cong Abbey, Cong, Republic of Ireland

If you’ve never been to Ireland, you’ve probably never heard of the town of Cong, unless, of course, you are a film buff. Cong’s main claim to fame is that many of the outdoor scenes in John Wayne’s The Quiet Man were filmed there. There is even a gift shop dedicated to the film. The photo above is Ashford Castle, which is now a lovely hotel in Cong. Below is what I was more excited about than the movie: a ruined abbey with a cemetery.

Read Full Post »

Warrensville East Cemetery

Read Full Post »

Can’t sleep, the clowns will eat me…

No, actually, it’s just that I’ve had out of town guests and am working on Camp NaNoWriMo. So I apologize for my shorter, more image intensive posts.

Read Full Post »

Forest Lawn Cemetery

I took this photo almost exactly a year ago at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. I was back there this weekend, so new photos will be coming soon!

Read Full Post »

A Grave Concern: East Cleveland Township Cemetery tour

This past weekend, we attended the 2nd Annual Halloween Night at the Cemetery at the East Cleveland Township Cemetery. Although the name might not make it completely clear, the event is a torchlit tour of the cemetery with stops for stories of individuals who are buried there. This year, they planned for the high turnout by having two tour groups at each time slot for a total of four tours. We visited 11 sites in the cemetery, with a mix of marked and unmarked graves, and there was only one brief story that was a repeat of the previous year’s tour. We were very lucky to have our tour lead by Nancy West, the author of To Dwell with Fellow Clay, a history of the cemetery and its residents. Before and after the tour, the restored chapel at the gate was open with baked goods, candy, and cider. Nancy stated they would have the tour again next year, and I will be there. I hope that in the future more of my readers will be able to make it out and support the great work the cemetery foundation is doing to take care of this historic cemetery.

Read Full Post »

A Grave Concern: Bethel Cemetery

I grew up on a rural cul-de-sac, surrounded by farmland. If you leave my father’s house, the first main road you come to is called Old Stonehouse Road. I don’t claim to know which of the aging gray stone farmhouses along its length gave the road its name, but you see enough of them to understand how it might have come about. Old Stonehouse winds down past an alpaca farm, plenty of fields, and the Bricker farm on the corner where my mother used to pick strawberries in the early summer. If you head south, through the tiny village of Allen (better known as Churchtown) that is little more than a crossroads, you come back out into more farm land. Just as Old Stonehouse intersects with State Route 74, on the left hand corner, there is a tall set of trees with a row of tombstones in front of them. The sign says that it’s Bethel Cemetery.

The years have not been kind to Bethel Cemetery. All of the remaining stones were at some point reset onto a single, long concrete pad. It’s a jumble of headstones and footstones, many re-broken since being set on the concrete. Some of them are barely readable and others are only recognizable as grave markers because of their location.

There are 5 intact, still standing headstones.

I suspect it is the cemetery’s relative isolation and proximity to the road that has contributed to its deterioration. There is no fence, no wall, and no house close enough to it to keep an eye on it. It’s right along the road, a convenient target for would-be vandals. It clearly hasn’t had a lot of maintenance work done in a long time. But someone cares, as evidenced by the four or five scattered GAR markers and bouquet of flowers that adorned the central marker when I visited.

Read Full Post »

A Grave Concern: Mark your calendars

On October 22, 2011, East Cleveland Township Cemetery is holding their 2nd Annual Halloween Night at the Cemetery. This was a good tour last year, and they promised that they will have new stories so that people can attend multiple years in a row and always hear something they haven’t before. This is a link to their flyer. Hope to see some of you there!

Read Full Post »

A Grave Concern: Cemetery tour this weekend

This Sunday, October 2, 2011, Woodland Cemetery Foundation is offering their Killer Cleveland Tour at 1 pm and 3 pm. This is a fundraiser to help with their efforts to repair and maintain this historic cemetery. Please see their website for more details.

Read Full Post »