York Walks /4

York Cemetery (revisited)

Photographed on 26 October 2004

I'd already visited and photographed the cemetery, in late August (see York Walks /3: York Cemetery), but I didn't get to see it all, and guessed it would be full of autumn colour by October, so wanted to call back.

Carved wooden squirrel

I'd never noticed the owl, pictured right, who has been carved from a tree trunk, just like the squirrel (left). Perhaps the owl is a more recent addition, perhaps I've never before been down the path he watches over, or perhaps I'm just not very observant. (Though how you could miss a 15ft carved wooden owl I don't know.)

Carved owl
     

Herb garden

Herb garden, York Cemetery   Carved stone marker for St Johns Wort
Herb garden, faded autumn glory  

On this visit I noticed a small area enclosed by a beech hedge. Previously I must have walked straight past this enclosed herb garden. The rectangular areas planted with different herbs have elegant carved markers, like the one for the St John's Wort, shown above. The herbs are past their best now, in autumn, but it is still a beautiful area of the cemetery.

     

Cemetery views – autumn colours

View of pathway, York Cemetery, with fallen leaves  

For this section of the site I wanted some photographs that would epitomise "autumn", and for that you need trees with leaves turning colour. There are so many fine old trees here, and I knew it was the best place to be on a day in late October. What I hadn't expected was the fantastic variation of colour provided not just by the trees but by late-flowering plants like these pictured below.

     
Beech tree with autumn leaf colour   Herbaceous planting, shrubs and tree
     
Yellow leaves and headstone   Brilliant autumn colour
     
Headstones and beech leaves   Late afternoon, autumn day

York Cemetery chapel

This beautiful building has already been photographed on my previous visit, but it looked particularly fine on this late October day, as the sun was sinking low behind the beech trees nearby.

  Sun setting over cemetery chapel
     
View of York Cemetery chapel   Chapel viewed on the approach from the main gate
     
Chapel front, with cat   Chapel front