Ok, so Halloween has been and gone, but we're staying with the Halloween theme for this blog post as we venture into the spooky cemetery in the Oakeley Arms garden. Yes, you read right - a cemetery at the Oakeley..... a dog cemetary, of course!!
The little dog graves in the far corner of the garden often attract quite a lot of attention from visitors and passers by, but they've been part of the Oakeley for as long as we can remember.
None of our faithful hounds are here yet, thank goodness, but some of the graves are more than 100 years old!
There's a similar Dog Cemetery at nearby Portmeirion, though of course it's much larger than our small patch. It was started by Adelaide Haigh, the eccentric tenant of Aber Ia (the manor house that became Portmeirion's Hotel building).
She absolutely adored her dogs, and they all slept in luxury in one of the manor house bedrooms. Apparently she read sermons to them in the belief that they were as religious as she was. When her beloved dogs died (and she had lots of them because she took in any stray that happened to pass), she buried them in the grounds of the estate, erecting grave stones with gushing epitaphs for her loyal companions.
We've yet to spot any spooky canine sightings, but who knows what these days after halloween will bring? Come along to the Oakeley and keep your eyes peeled for some four-legged ghosts!
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