Old Dunkeld Cemetery

My favourite cemeteries have “old” in their title. Arriving at the Old Dunkeld Cemetery, you soon see it lives up to its name. Burials occurred here from 1858 through to 1903.

On a large allotment of ten acres, the remaining headstones stand in three main groups, Catholic, Presbyterian and Anglican, at distant points of the cemetery. Looking at the Google Map at the bottom of this post you can clearly see the headstone groupings.

Just inside the gate, a welcome sign gives you an understanding that there are far more people buried here than the headstones suggest. Not a good photo, but you can see the full list of burials at Ian Marr’s Cemeteries of SW Victoria site here.

Unfortunately, when I visited two weeks ago, I found the cemetery very overgrown. Being in the middle of a warm spring and considering snakes like a cemetery just as much as I do, I kept to the track leading up to the rear of the cemetery where the Presbyterian section lies.

Dunkeld is a picturesque town, at the southern end of the majestic Grampians with endless views to the mountains. You can’t beat the views at the cemetery either, particularly from the Presbyterian section.

I didn’t try to get to the Anglican section of the cemetery. There were thistles everywhere. I suppose if one weed was going to dominate in a cemetery where Scottish settlers rest, in a town with a Scottish name, in the shadows of a mountain range also with a Scottish name, thistles are apt.