The north slope of Mont-Royal is given over almost entirely to the dead, and it's the most beautiful walk on the mountain because of it: two enormous cemeteries laid out as Victorian gardens, blurring at their edges into real woodland. Five kilometres of avenues and trails, best when the maples turn.
Climb up from Édouard-Montpetit to the gate of Mount Royal Cemetery, the Protestant ground of 1852, designed as a garden of winding drives and specimen trees. Anna Leonowens is buried here, along with most of the brewers and bankers who built the city; the monuments carry the 19th century whether or not you read the names. Cross into Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges next door — the largest cemetery in Canada, over a million graves on cypress-lined avenues climbing the hill, denser and more devotional than its neighbour.
The graves give way to woodland at the top, footpaths under maples and birches that go orange and red in October. This is the quiet end of the mountain. Walk it slowly, then come down the western side to Côte-des-Neiges and the Blue line home.
