BOHERMORE VICTORIAN CEMETERY IN GALWAY

Rencently I have noticed cemeteries in Ireland being described as ‘Victorian Era’ rather than ‘Victorian Style’.

Last year I described this as a Victorian Style Graveyard but some people disagreed with this discription … For example one person commented as follows “ Victorian Style means meandering paths, lots of trees, and some water features to make it more like a park to visit. Also, Victorian cemeteries tend to be a bit more non-conformist with religious affiliation, but Bohermore, as you saw, is still very religious and pretty much just laid out to maximize the use of space.”

According to Wikipedia “The origins of the Victorian cemetery were based on Victorian ideas of regulation and structure, much like other parts of Victorian society such as workhouses, asylums and prisons. The Victorian cemetery was a new way of burying people due to innovative landscape design and architecture. After 1800 dedicated garden cemeteries were created to solve earlier problems with overcrowding and sanitation. Their designs were based on the idea of Arcadia.”

Bohermore is located in Galway, Ireland. The name is derived from the Irish literally meaning "the big road". On the last day of my 2016 visit to Galway I walked at random around the area and came across this interesting cemetery and it was not what I would have expected if I had been looking for it. It is very well organised, well maintained and rather modern which may explain why the locals refer to it as the ’new cemetery’. This year, during a break in the weather, I revisited the cemetery but for some reason I was not as impressed as I had been back in 2016 but I cannot explain why I was less impressed.