York Cemetery – Gardening at the Cemetery CITO Cache In Trash Out Event

Come and join the regular volunteers for a morning of gardening, and stay for lunch and cake if you can. Without the efforts of volunteers, the cemetery could not operate as a wildlife and visitor haven it is today. 

York Cemetery is a working burial ground. At the same time, it provides opportunities for conservation, education, and informal recreation within a protected environment close to York city centre. Volunteers contribute in many ways, helping to maintain and develop the wild and beautiful 24-acre site, rich in local history and ecology.

We have been working with the Friends of York Cemetery now for over a year to help them get involved with Geocaching. We’ve placed a number of caches around the cemetery and are planning events for later in the year. In order to show the Friends that Geocachers love a good CITO why not come along and help out alongside regular volunteers at a gardening day.

We will spend the morning carrying out routine gardening tasks along the scented walk and butterfly walk areas of the cemetery, including weeding, pruning and clearing brambles from the wilderness!

At about 12noon we will stop for lunch, in or on the steps of the chapel. Bring a packed lunch, but there will be tea and homemade cake aplenty. It might be an idea to bring a bottle of water and some suncream just in case the sun comes out.

You could also take the opportunity to grab the cemetery traditional, multi and earth caches whilst you are here.

What you need to know:

Saturday 5^th August from 10am – 12noon

Meet us and the Friends at the cemetery gatehouse, for introductions and brief H&S information. We will be the ones wearing bright orange. Come and introduce yourself as Geocachers, we will have the log to sign.

We recommend you wear sturdy footwear, as we will be working on uneven ground between gravestones. You can bring your own gardening gloves, but all tools and equipment will be provided (there are gardening gloves available if you forget or don’t have them).

Children are welcome, but must be supervised. No dogs are allowed in the cemetery, apart from registered assistance dogs. Please remember that this is a working cemetery and there will probably be people visiting graves.

If you are planning to come then please log a 'will attend' note so we can gauge numbers for the day. Our tasks on the day may change depending on the weather, we will update the listing and make announcements if necessary.