A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1352 entries
corpse road
A route along which the dead were carried to burial at a parish church, sometimes over miles of moorland. Some have flat resting stones on the uphill side for setting down the load, or recessed stones in alcove walls. Also: lichway, coffin path.
Etymology
Descriptive English. Corpse, from Latin corpus (“body”) + road, from Old English rād (“a riding, journey”). A path defined by its purpose — the way the dead traveled to the churchyard. Also called a lichway, from Old English līc (“corpse”).