The Necropolis Glasgow

The Necropolis opened in 1833 and was the first planned cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. In common with the other major Victorian cemeteries, it was designed as a botanic garden. From the top of the Grey Rock, 225 feet above the River Clyde, there is a wonderful view of the city. The Necropolis was one of the few cemeteries at that time which kept records of the dead, including profession, age, sex and cause of death. They reveal an appalling infant mortality with measles being a prime killer. The cemetery was intended to be non-denominational so that "Catholics could sleep in a spot associated with the name of the Holy Virgin Mary, Jews could slumber in a cave, like that of Machpelah in the field of Ephron. Lutherans could lie among nature. Quakers could lie in sequestered nooks and strict Presbyterians could obtain graves around the column which proclaims the pure and unswerving principles of John Knox”. On February 1833 the first Christian interment was carried out, that of Elizabeth Miles who was ironically the stepmother of George Myles the cemetery superintendent. Of the 50,000 interments only about 3,500 have tombs, the rest are in public graves. There are a vast array of Celtic crosses and large vaults, I felt very uncomfortable inside one of the largest as I sensed black magic rituals had taken place there. It’s quite an eerie cemetery, a mist seems to descend out of nowhere, yet just when you think it feels a little too unnerving a tiny rabbit will hop past.