When we were up in Usk a few weeks back we visited the natural burial ground at Usk Castle Chase. My mother is buried there. By coincidence they were having an “Open Day” which I must admit I found a bit bizarre but I suppose even burial grounds and funeral directors need to do a bit of marketing!
My mother was always into natural things and woodlands so it seemed a natural thing to bury her there rather than in the local churchyard in the Vale of Glamorgan. The setting is amazing and the views are fantastic. It’s a very pieceful natural place and I’m sure it’s what she would have wanted – in fact she left us strict instructions! It gave us the chance to have a non-religious “service” and we actually did the whole thing ourselves with poetry readings and some of my mum’s favourite music. NativeWoodland did all of the preparation of the burial site and we used a specialist “green” funeral director from Cardiff aptly called Green Willow Funeral Directors. They were really good, and very reasonable cost-wise. We even used a biodegradable wicker coffin which looked nice. The site is kept close to nature and hence there are no grave markings or memorial stones as you can see in the picture.
If you are looking for something a bit more natural and eco-friendly than the traditional funeral service then I can recommend both the organisations we used.
Native Woodland have since opened another site at St Nicholas, west of Cardiff.