Thread by @Paul4Jags

In anticipation of the new book from @PeterAlanRoss coming out this week, exploring graveyard stories, I have indulged my taphophiliac tendencies today with a Sunday morning jog around some old Glasgow cemeteries...

I started at the Glasgow Necropolis and the Glasgow Cathedral graveyard. Some of the best views of the Necropolis are afforded to those in the beds of the Royal Infirmary. Always thought that was a bit ghoulish.

Then up to Sighthill Cemetery, with views across Glasgow now so radically altered by the fact that the high flats nearby are cleared away.

And finished off at the Western Necropolis/ Lambhill Cemetery/ St Kentigern's Cemetery. Three burial grounds running into each other.

There are many war graves here, due to the proximity of Stobhill Hospital, where convalescing WW1 soldiers were sent. Also Benny Lynch's grave is found here, about 50 yards away from my great-grandfather's, who apparently made Benny's gum shields.

Always a wee bit saddened up here to see that when 22 miners died in 1913 in the Cadder Pit Disaster, due to an underground fire, the former colleagues were separated after death. 11 are buried together in the Catholic graveyard, and 11 others buried elsewhere.

Another week, another 10 mile jog around some old Glasgow graveyards, this time on the Southside, starting in the Gorbals Rose Garden. A burial ground since 1715 it has been restored as a park, with the old gravestones moved to the periphery...

Then up to Eastwood New Cemetery, opened in 1911. Where pigeons immitate sculptures and John MacLean is buried. His gravestone records his MA from Glasgow Uni. The Marxist educator, anti-war campaigner and Bolshevik consul to Scotland died aged 44, weakened after his imprisonment

Cathcart Cemetery offers views north over Glasgow, and meandering walks through the overgrown paths. Rain showers drove me back towards the Gorbals...

I finished up at one of my favourite cemeteries in Glasgow, where every second stone seems to tell a story. The Southern Necropolis was allegedly home to the Gorbals Vampire in the 1950s, hunted by local kids (as depicted by Frank Quietly here for a Citizens play)...

Gorbals born tea merchant Thomas Lipton is buried here. Engineer John Robertson who created the engine for the early steamship, The Comet, stares life-like from his grave. Agnes Harkness, "the heroine of Matagorda" has an intriguing footnote on hers "for more details please..."

Also in the Southern Necropolis the grave of an 82 year old woman and her housekeeper, both killed in 1933 in a tram accident. And a huge, incongruous gravestone marks the final resting place of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. His nearby Caledonia Road Church is a more classy memorial

Another jog around some Glasgow graveyards, this time a 12 mile loop through sunshine and showers in the eastend. Started at the sprawling Riddrie Cemetery, where the Molendinar Burn runs.

As Edwin Morgan put it "Grey over Riddrie the clouds piled up, dragged their rain through the cemetery trees"...so I moved on.

Sandymount Cemetery was opened in 1878. It has a nice combination of well maintained areas and crumbling dilapidation. Robert Ford "humourist and man of letters" is falling into the latter, author of "Vagabond Songs and Ballads".

One grave that stands out from the others is that of Amadou Sy - "Mort pour La France 1943". Aged 36 when he died he was a stoker on SS Touareg, a member of the Fighting French Mercantile Marine. How his remains ended up in the east end of Glasgow, far from home, I do not know.

Next to Sandymount Cemetery is Glenduffhill Jewish Cemetery. Opened in1934, the closely packed and carefully maintained rows of a gives this cemetery its own unique aspect.

Tollcross Cemetery hides in a small triangle of land behind rows of tenements. William Miller, the author of "Wee Willie Winkie", may have a memorial stone at the Necropolis, but his remains lie here in an unmarked family plot against the northern wall.

The Eastern Necropolis, aka Janefield Cemetery, lies between the Gallowgate and Parkhead stadium, paradise for some. The favoured burial site of travelling communities from nearby Vinegarhill was the roundabout near the entrance.

In Janefield Cemetery one of the stones commemorates Bruce Crawford, one of the 25 people killed at Ibrox in 1902 when a stand collapsed during a Scotland v England match. "Killed at Ibrox Park Disaster".

I ended up at Calton Burial Ground on Abercromby Street, originally the burial ground of Calton's weavers. Three of the six weavers shot by soldiers during a strike in 1787 are buried here, John Page, Alexander Miller and James Ainsley.

Across the road from the burial ground a new mural of St Thenue (also known as St Enoch) is appearing. Dr James Smith, pastor of Abraham Lincoln's church in Illinois, whose grave is marked by a granite obelisk here, would surely approve.

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