Old Hill Burying Ground

Concord's oldest cemetery, established in 1635. The burial ground contains the remains of early settlers, Revolutionary War soldiers, and victims of early epidemics. Many headstones are weathered beyond readability.

Old Hill Burying Ground rises on a hillside overlooking Concord's town center, a 1700s cemetery that has accumulated centuries of dark history—and at least one malevolent presence that local legend warns visitors never to approach. Just off Monument Square, this ancient graveyard holds the remains of Concord's earliest settlers, Revolutionary War soldiers, and prominent citizens. But as evening falls, something else walks among the weathered headstones.

The cemetery shows its age in ways that enhance its eerie atmosphere. Mole holes pock the uneven ground. Rampant weeds crawl between tilted gravestones. The site has an unmistakable air of abandonment, as if the living have learned to keep their distance. And perhaps they have good reason.

The most notorious feature is the "Skull Tombstone," a marker bearing a carved death's head with an unsettling inscription that speaks of "bowing to the king of terror." This grim reminder of colonial mortality draws visitors seeking the macabre, but what they find at dusk is far more disturbing than carved stone.

As day turns to evening, a sinister specter prowls Old Hill Burying Ground. Unlike the named ghosts in other cemeteries, this brooding figure seemingly has no grave marker within the grounds. His identity remains unknown—a mystery that only deepens his menace. Those who have encountered him describe instant regret at approaching, a creeping dread that builds as his dark form becomes visible between the tombstones.

This murderous presence lurks within the cemetery, moving through the graves at dusk with a hostility that visitors can feel before they see him. Unlike friendly ghosts who seem content to share space with the living, this entity radiates malevolence. Local guides warn that questioning or provoking him invites consequences no one wants to face.

The Pierce family crypt adds another layer of mystery—it has been broken into three times, though what exactly drew vandals to this particular tomb remains unexplained. Some speculate the violations awakened something that should have remained at rest.

Concord's "Twilight: Monuments, Memories, and Mortality Tour" brings visitors to Old Hill Burying Ground and nearby Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where authors Hawthorne, Thoreau, Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott rest on Authors' Ridge. The tour explores not just the cemeteries' famous residents but the darker stories that locals share about encounters among the stones.

Old Hill Burying Ground exists in the shadow of Concord's more famous haunted locations—the Colonial Inn, where wounded Revolutionary soldiers died in what is now Room 24, and the Old Manse, where Nathaniel Hawthorne heard the voice of a dead preacher. But for those brave enough to visit at twilight, this ancient cemetery offers something the others cannot: an encounter with an entity so hostile, so territorial, that even hardened ghost hunters approach with caution.

The warning is simple: if you must visit Old Hill Burying Ground after dark, do not approach the figure you may see moving between the graves. He has no name that we know, no stone marking his resting place. But he is there, waiting.