Tuesday, March 23, 2010

One of my favorite graveyards

Is in St. Andrews Scotland. I never pass up the opportunity to visit this city or graveyard. Outside of Edinburgh, this is my favorite city in Scotland.

The cathedral cemetery is a very large cemetery that was one the site of the largest cathedral in Scotland. And if you ever visit you will be amazed just looking at the site of the ruins it is almost impossible to believe that there was a church that size right there on the coast.

You can read the history of the church here, but the short version is that it fell like many other cathedrals and kirks during the reformation and most of the stones from the church were used to build the surrounding buildings.

Today, it is a massive cemetery and quite unique. You can still see some of the walls from the inside of the cathedral in the graveyard. There is even a small part of what was the original church (St. Rule) still on the grounds, that church dates back to the 12th century.

When you visit today, you can find open graves that were unearthed when during the destruction. I have to say that even I found it very creepy to be standing in front of a stone grave open and vacant...wondering where the original in habitant is now.

So, here is part one of three posts of my pictures from my serveral visits to this fantastic cemetery. If you get the chance, it is definitely worth the visit.









Oh, and up the street a bit and around the corner there is the golf course....it is a bit more famous, but I personally perfer the graveyard :)

6 comments:

  1. I'm lovin' this...seeing all these pics sort of makes me homesick for GB...swore I would never leave there but husband left me little choice (he's still paying for that mistake). have you guys made it all the way to Isle of Skye? that is an eerie and lonely place. going to Whitby in the north of England is cool, too...my kids got so excited scampering about in the castle/monastery ruins (they were little then). told them that this was the site that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. (course, they thought that the vampire himself had actually lived there...hehe)

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  2. Ooooo, I would love that place! Too bad we don't have one that looks like that where I am.

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  3. Wow, truly awesome and atmospheric photos indeed.

    I've heard so much about St. Andrews, and am longing to visit it (and all of Scotland as well, seeing as I'm a Scot) in the near future.

    I love the fact that you can visit this historic and eerie graveyard, then take a quit trot down the road to play a game of golf...

    - E

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  4. I have really enjoyed all these photos of Scotland!! I hope to visit there and Ireland one day, it's on my 'Wanna do' list.

    Keep posting em'!!

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  5. Wow! Great photos, makes me want to go there...someday perhaps...

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