Scattering Ashes - Public Place

[Lootman]

I have no idea about Scotland specifically but jurisdictions seem unduly funny about regulations around this matter. This is particularly the case where the ashes need to be transported on airlines or across borders.

So I have long taken the view that I will ignore all such regulations. Although ashes are considered "human remains", they are in fact inert and incapable of contamination or infection even if the deceased died of a contagious disease.

I have had good luck air-freighting human remains as "ceramic art materials".

And in one case the deceased had stated her wish to be sprinkled in the Loire across from the Chateau Amboise where Leonardo da Vinci lived. A dozen French laws disallowed it and I did it anyway. Screw them and their screwy laws. Just do it - it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

[swill453]

The law seems pretty pragmatic about it all, basically ensuring if you do it on private land you have permission, and in water some simple precautions so you don't pollute anything https://www.scattering-ashes.co.uk/help-advice/law/

Scott.

[Clariman]

I've spread ashes in a public place in Scotland . We didn't ask permission, but it was a bit nerve-wracking trying to make sure no-one was about to walk past. And I did return with part of my in-law on my shoes

I wouldn't do it in a its centre but somewhere rural should be fine.

[Lootman]

I've spread ashes in a public place in Scotland . We didn't ask permission, but it was a bit nerve-wracking trying to make sure no-one was about to walk past. And I did return with part of my in-law on my shoes

I wouldn't do it in a its centre but somewhere rural should be fine.

That reminds me of the case of my mother-in-law. When her husband died he requested that his ashes be tossed off a cliff in Purbeck, Dorset. My MiL duly carried his ashes up the cliff (they typically weigh 4 to 6 pounds) and at some point she stumbled, fell and the ashes went all over the place.

She just started laughing. Sometimes things just happen.

This is something where I think people should just do what they want. Ashes are inert and harmless. No laws are needed and, where they exist, they should be ignored.

[Clariman]

Lootman, I thought you were going to say that you'd told your MIL that the easiest way to spread her husband's ashes over a cliff would be to jump off with them!

[midnightcatprowl]

I understand that some football clubs try to ban scattering of ashes on their pitches. The issue isn't about contamination or transmission of disease but about the effect on the playing quality of the pitch if enough people do it. Football is NOT my thing but a friend did tell me this.

[Lootman]

Lootman, I thought you were going to say that you'd told your MIL that the easiest way to spread her husband's ashes over a cliff would be to jump off with them!

I never met my FiL but he was evidently a great man. And my MiL refutes every stereotype of mothers-in-law - she is a wonderful lady.

Sounds a little like you are advocating for suttee - the Indian funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre.

[Aprilfool62]

I scattered my husbands ashes in a lake. Don't ask permission.... Just don't get caught

April

[Redmires]

We scattered our parents ashes in a public park - the place where they first met 50 odd years previously. Sometimes you have to do what you feel is right, not what is necessarily lawful. Just be discreet.

[Slarti]

I assisted my mother scattering my father's ashes on a hillside in Northumberland and then later scattered hers at the same place.

She had nice weather for Dad, with only a light breeze.

I had a howling gale and horizontal rain. I made the mistake of standing with my back to the wind and emptying the earn in front of me. I was causing an eddy and about 50% of the ashes came back at me and stuck to my wet waterproof. Luckily there was enough rain to wash her off. I never realised that my Mam was clingy.

Slarti

PS, we didn't seek permission either time.

[Lootman]

we didn't seek permission either time.

As a general rule with something like this you should never ask for permission. Because some places do have rules against it. Whilst other places do not but may decide that they have no reason to allow it anyway. And once you have asked and been refused, they know who you are and what you are up to, and you no longer have plausible deniability nor can credibly claim ignorance.

Same goes if you have to fly with ashes or need to send them somewhere. Airlines and delivery firms all have rules about this. Some of the rules are OK and some not. But it's best just to skirt the issue by keeping quiet. To my knowledge airport security scanners do not pick up inert human remains. Customs might find them but that's probably not a priority for them.

[bungeejumper]

My Uncle Roy asked for his ashes to be scattered on a golf course, and specifically at one particular hole where he'd been battling against outrageous fortune for many decades. It didn't take us very long to discover that golf courses aren't generally very keen on having their greens fertilised by their players, because ashes do hang around for quite a long time before they degrade, and they go a bit slimy, and it does tend to put the other players off.

So what were we to do? We did toy with the Great Escape solution of slipping a trouserleg full of Uncle Roy onto the notorious Twelfth while nobody was looking. But in the end it only got a tablespoon's worth of him, and in a high wind too. As for the rest of him, well, respectable Uncle Roy had to settle for a bit of rough. As his widow agreed, there was a first time for everything.

BJ

[Meatyfool]

I recall a guy who stipulated his ashes scattered on some moor oop North, but died during the Foot and Mouth epidemic and the moor was closed to access.

His family hired the local rocket club to shoot him onto the moor.

Where there's a will, ...

Meatyfool..

[Slarti]

I recall a guy who stipulated his ashes scattered on some moor oop North, but died during the Foot and Mouth epidemic and the moor was closed to access.

His family hired the local rocket club to shoot him onto the moor.

Where there's a will, ...

Meatyfool..

For my mother, I worked on the theory that she wouldn't mind waiting until I could travel north, so it was over a year after her cremation before I got her out onto the moors.

Slarti

[csearle]

Dad, a spiritualist, never cared much for his mortal remains, so we had an enjoyable evening once discussing what we could do with his ashes. At some stage he suggested I sprinkle him out of an aeroplane over The Black Forest as he had cycled around there shortly before the war. Frankly we were having a good old chuckle about it all. Anyway in the fullness of time that situation arose. Given that we had not discussed the matter seriously mum and I agreed to just go with the last daft suggestion that had been made on that occasion. Not a great difficulty as I lived (and flew) in Stuttgart at the time, just a short hop away from said forest.

Anyway (it transpires totally illegally) I bunged him into the car in Devon and brought him back home to Germany. For over a year he stayed on the bookshelf horrifying any locals that were made aware of him. It was a shock to them because it was unheard of (because apparently I shouldn't have been keeping him there). Anyway I think the reason he stayed there for so long was because I had in mind an anecdote the funeral director had told me on the day I'd picked him up. He said a vicar had scattered a client around the 18th hole of a golf course at waist level despite having being warned to do it at ground level. The result had been a red-faced but powdery white vicar to replace the black-robed one.

I had imagined using a cardboard tube taped to the box somehow, then wedging the door open a bit, and allowing dad to funnel out of the tube below (and to one side of) the Cessna. The trouble was he had some chunky bits in there and I felt a certain reticence about doing it as I kept imagining chunks clogging up my elevator and sending me on the same journey as my dad. So I kind of kept putting off the deed.

So one rainy day my then wife and I set off in the car, found a tree in a forest near to a country road. I gently emptied him out at its base. I love my dad.

Chris

[Nimrod103]

I recall a news item a few years back to the effect that the national park authorities were unhappy about the spreading of ashes on acid soil areas - particularly on the summits of mountains (Ben Nevis was mentioned). This was because the Calcium and Phosphorous in ashes were changing the soil acidity and fertility thus causing trouble to the native flora (or lack of flora).

[Lootman]

For over a year he stayed on the bookshelf horrifying any locals that were made aware of him. It was a shock to them because it was unheard of (because apparently I shouldn't have been keeping him there).

My mother in law was in a tin can for several years before we got around to interning her in her desired way. Her remains were a door stop for the longest time. The front door, at that. As guests arrived, they would be introduced to her. Reactions varied.

[UncleEbenezer]

To my knowledge airport security scanners do not pick up inert human remains. Customs might find them but that's probably not a priority for them.

You remind me of an anecdote from long ago in my family.

Someone was crossing from Sweden to England with a jar of lingon, a Swedish favourite made from berries picked wild in the forest, and which translates loosely as cranberry sauce.

Any Swede would know it instantly. But British customs didn't, and they got detained for some time on suspicion of smuggling drugs.

His family hired the local rocket club to shoot him onto the moor.

Hmmm. A business idea for my neighbour who recently got made redundant but is an expert with his hobby flying drones?

[Rhyd6]

We take our dog for a walk up to the top of "our" mountain almost daily and often come across piles of ashes. We can always spot potential scatterers because they always look so furtive. The drone idea sounds really cool though anyone downwind could get a big shock My mum and dad are scattered around our woods with a big pile of each near our summerhouse which overlooks the duck pond and was one of their favourite places. OH and I have given strict instructions to be near the summerhouse and our best friends have asked if they can join us as we've spent many a happy hour there supping the evenings away.

R6

[scotia]

From the Web Site of a Fishing club which shall remain anonymous:-.

I remember when his ashes were to be scattered on the loch. In the event it was decided to sink the box containing the ashes. However when the time came, ******* floated. Awkward to the last. A few large chuckies soon sorted him out!

The asterisks are mine. Translation - chuckies are stones.