- 4 groundsDowntown Boston historic burying grounds
- 1630King's Chapel — oldest in America
- $47After-hours guided tour (Ghosts & Gravestones)
- FreeDaytime visits — no tickets, no booking
- 90 minGhosts & Gravestones tour duration
Four Burying Grounds, 400 Years of History, and the Only Tour That Enters Them After Dark
Boston has four major historic burying grounds within walking distance of the Freedom Trail. Three of them — Granary, King's Chapel, and Copp's Hill — are among the oldest cemeteries in America and official Freedom Trail sites. All three close at dusk. All three are visited on foot by the Ghosts & Gravestones trolley tour after the gates have shut.
The history here isn't invented for visitors. The people buried in these grounds include signatories of the Declaration of Independence, victims of the Boston Massacre, a judge who helped trigger the Salem witch trials, a man whose gravestone still bears musket-ball scars from British soldiers using it for target practice, and thousands whose remains were removed in the 18th and 19th centuries by medical students who knew where to find them.
The Four Historic Burying Grounds
- Granary Burying Ground — 1660, Adams, Hancock, Revere, Massacre victims
- King's Chapel Burying Ground — 1630, Boston's oldest cemetery
- Copp's Hill Burying Ground — 1659, musket-ball gravestone, Cotton Mather
- Central Burying Ground — 1756, Gilbert Stuart, 800 British soldiers
What Makes These Graveyards Different
- Documented history on every headstone — not invented ghost stories
- All close at dusk — after-hours access via Ghosts & Gravestones tour only
- Free to visit independently during the day, 9 AM–5 PM
- Connected by threads of colonial history most tours don't trace explicitly
- Malcom gravestone at Copp's Hill: physical evidence of Revolutionary violence you can touch
Other Boston Experiences to Pair With a Graveyard Visit
Visitors who explore Boston's historic burying grounds often pair them with one of these. Browse a hand-picked mix of the Ghosts & Gravestones trolley tour with after-hours graveyard access, Boston ghost walking tours through King's Chapel and Granary Burying Ground, haunted pub crawls through the city's oldest taverns, a Boston Harbor ghost cruise past Nix's Mate and Fort Warren, a Freedom Trail history tour, and a Salem witch-trial day trip from Boston — with live availability and prices below.
The Four Historic Burying Grounds: What's in Each and Why It Matters
From the 1630 founding to the Revolution and beyond — the history buried at each site, and what to look for when you visit.
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Granary Burying Ground — The Most Famous
Established 1660. Roughly 5,000 burials, 2,345 headstones remaining — many no longer marking the graves beneath them. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Robert Treat Paine are here: three of those four signed the Declaration of Independence. So are the five victims of the Boston Massacre — Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr. The discrepancy between burials and headstones isn't a clerical error: the cemetery was reorganised multiple times, stones were moved and consolidated, and body snatchers removed remains for medical school anatomy classes throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Ghosts & Gravestones tour enters Granary on foot after closing, when Tremont Street sounds filter through the iron fence and the crowds of the day are gone. 95 Tremont Street. Open daily 9 AM–5 PM.
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King's Chapel Burying Ground — The Oldest
Established 1630 — the same year Boston was founded, on land donated by Isaac Johnson, the first person buried there. John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is buried here. So is William Dawes, who rode alongside Paul Revere on the night of April 18, 1775 and is considerably less famous for it. Mary Chilton, believed to be the first Pilgrim to step ashore at Plymouth, was buried here in 1679. The connection between this cemetery and the Salem witch trials runs through the stones: John Hathorne — one of the presiding judges in 1692 — has descendants buried here, and Nathaniel Hawthorne added a 'w' to his family name specifically to distance himself from that ancestor's role. Every experienced Boston ghost-tour guide identifies King's Chapel as the most unsettling of the three after dark — something about the 1688 chapel, the narrow surrounding streets, and the age of the stones creates an atmosphere the daytime version doesn't have. 58 Tremont Street. Open daily 9 AM–5 PM (seasonal variation).
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Copp's Hill Burying Ground — The Most Overlooked
Established 1659, 10,000+ burials. The northern slope of Copp's Hill contains the "New Guinea" section, where Boston's free Black community buried their dead from the late 17th century onward — more than 1,000 Black Bostonians, many in unmarked fieldstone graves. They are among the oldest documented Black burial sites in America. British soldiers occupying Boston (1768–1776) used the headstones for target practice; the gravestone of Captain Daniel Malcom still bears the musket-ball scars exactly as left in 1775. His epitaph reads "a true son of liberty, a friend to the publick, an enemy to oppression." It's one of the few places in America where you can touch physical evidence of a specific documented act of Revolutionary violence. Cotton Mather — the Puritan minister who helped trigger the Salem witch trials and attended William Fly's pirate execution at Nix's Mate — is buried here in an unmarked grave whose precise location is not publicly documented. The Ghosts & Gravestones tour makes its second on-foot cemetery stop at Copp's Hill. Hull Street, North End. Open daily 9 AM–5 PM.
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Central Burying Ground — The Hidden One
Established 1756. Located on the Boylston Street edge of Boston Common and easily missed by visitors focused on the Freedom Trail's better-known sites. Gilbert Stuart — whose 1796 unfinished portrait of George Washington became the image on the one-dollar bill and is one of the most reproduced portraits in history — is buried here in an unmarked tomb whose precise location within the grounds has never been definitively identified. The cemetery also contains the remains of approximately 800 British soldiers who died during the occupation of Boston (1768–1776), now buried in a public park where Bostonians walk their dogs. Not a Freedom Trail stop, not visited by the ghost tour, but worth 10 minutes for any visitor interested in the city's full history. Boylston Street side of Boston Common. Open during park hours.
Ghosts & Gravestones: Boston's After-Hours Graveyard Tour
The Ghosts & Gravestones trolley tour is the only legitimate way to enter Boston's historic burying grounds after the gates have officially closed. Departing from Long Wharf, a specially fitted trolley takes you through downtown Boston — past streets associated with the Boston Strangler, the colonial execution ground, and documented haunting history — before stopping on foot at Copp's Hill and Granary. Your host is a costumed 17th-century gravedigger. The character is theatrical, but the history underneath it is documented and accurate.
- After-hours on-foot access to Copp's Hill and Granary Burying Grounds
- Costumed gravedigger host with historically grounded narration
- Trolley route through Boston's colonial and true-crime dark history
- Roughly 90 minutes after dark, year-round (spring through autumn)
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
Departs Old Town Trolley stop #1, 200 Atlantic Avenue (Marriott Long Wharf). PG-13 — children under 6 not permitted; ages 6–12 must be accompanied by an adult. October departures sell out weeks in advance — book early. Operated by Historic Tours of America.
Six Things to Look for When You Visit Boston's Historic Burying Grounds
The headstones tell you the names. These are the stories the headstones leave out.
The numbers don't add up
5,000 people are estimated to be buried at Granary; only 2,345 headstones remain, and many no longer mark the graves beneath them. The cemetery was reorganised multiple times, stones were moved and consolidated to look more orderly, and body snatchers took remains for medical anatomy classes throughout the early 19th century. The ground holds far more than the markers suggest.
The musket-ball gravestone
Captain Daniel Malcom's headstone still bears three visible musket-ball impact marks left by British soldiers during the occupation of Boston. His epitaph reads "a true son of liberty, a friend to the publick, an enemy to oppression." The soldiers who used his headstone for target practice presumably disagreed. The scars are in the western section near the Hull Street entrance.
The most unsettling after dark
Every ghost-tour guide who has worked the Boston circuit for any length of time identifies King's Chapel Burying Ground as the most unsettling of the three at night — something about the combination of the 1688 chapel, the narrowness of the surrounding streets, and the age of the stones creates an atmosphere that resists easy explanation. Worth visiting both by day and by the trolley's lantern light.
The New Guinea section
The northern slope of Copp's Hill contains a section where Boston's free Black community buried their dead from the late 17th century onward — more than 1,000 Black Bostonians, many in simple fieldstone graves with no inscriptions. They are among the oldest documented Black burial sites in America. The contrast with the elaborate carved stones elsewhere in the cemetery is stark.
The Boston Massacre victims
All five victims of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770 — Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr — are buried at Granary. The massacre, in which British soldiers fired on a crowd near the Old State House, became one of the most powerful rallying events of the revolutionary period. Their shared grave marker is one of the most visited in the cemetery.
The most divisive burial
Cotton Mather (1663–1728), Boston's most prominent Puritan minister and one of the most energetic advocates for the Salem witch trial prosecutions, is buried at Copp's Hill in an unmarked grave. He attended the 1692 execution of George Burroughs — who recited the Lord's Prayer perfectly from the gallows, an act supposedly impossible for a witch — and intervened to keep the crowd from stopping it. His grave's precise location within the grounds is not publicly documented.
The Dark History Connecting Boston's Graveyards
These aren't isolated historic sites — they're connected by documented threads of colonial violence, medical crime and judicial murder that most daytime tours don't trace explicitly.
Body snatching for medical education
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, grave robbing was a documented problem at all three major Boston burying grounds. Harvard Medical College needed cadavers for anatomy classes; legal avenues were essentially zero. The solution — for students and paid "resurrection men" — was the city's cemeteries. Watchmen were occasionally posted at the gates; iron coffins were used by wealthier families. The practice continued until the Massachusetts Anatomy Act of 1831 began to provide a legal supply of unclaimed bodies for medical use.
The Parkman–Webster murder
Dr. George Parkman, one of Boston's most prominent physicians, disappeared on November 23, 1849. His partial remains were found in the laboratory of Dr. John White Webster, a Harvard Medical College professor who owed Parkman a substantial debt. Webster had dismembered the body using the same dissection facilities that had processed bodies taken from the city's burying grounds. He was convicted of murder and hanged on Boston Common in 1850 — approximately 400 metres from the Central Burying Ground. The case established several precedents in forensic science.
The first witch hanging — before Salem
Ann Glover, an Irish Catholic washerwoman, was hanged for witchcraft on Boston Common on November 16, 1688 — four years before the Salem trials began. Reverend Cotton Mather, later buried at Copp's Hill, attended her execution and wrote about it in Memorable Providences, framing it as evidence that shaped his understanding of witchcraft — understanding he brought directly to the Salem prosecutions. The Boston City Council now recognises November 16 as Goody Glover Day.
The Boston Strangler's streets
Albert DeSalvo murdered 13 women in the Boston area between June 1962 and January 1964. Several of his victims lived in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighbourhoods through which the Ghosts & Gravestones trolley route passes — connecting the city's colonial dark history to its 20th-century murders. DeSalvo confessed but later recanted; questions about his sole guilt persist in the historical record. The trolley passes through these neighbourhoods on the way to the cemetery stops.
Boston: Death and Dying Walking Ghost Tour
For visitors who want to explore the burying grounds with a knowledgeable guide during opening hours, Ghost City Tours' walking ghost tour covers Granary and King's Chapel Burying Ground alongside other downtown historic sites. It's a strong alternative if you prefer a ground-level walk over a trolley ride, or if you want to see the grounds while they're still open — useful context before doing the evening Ghosts & Gravestones tour the same night.
- On-foot walking tour through downtown historic district
- Covers Granary and King's Chapel Burying Ground
- Documented ghost lore alongside genuine colonial history
- ~75 minutes — shorter and lower-priced than the trolley tour
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
Recommended combination: do this walking tour by day to see the burying grounds in detail, then the Ghosts & Gravestones trolley after dark for the after-hours on-foot experience. The two complement rather than duplicate each other. See our full Boston ghost tours ranking to compare all available formats.
Visiting Boston's Historic Burying Grounds: Hours, Addresses and Tips
Everything you need to visit all four grounds — and how to get the most from both a daytime and evening visit.
Granary Burying Ground
95 Tremont Street (between Park Street Church and King's Chapel). Open daily 9 AM–5 PM. Enter from Tremont Street. The most visited of the three — expect crowds during summer and October. The Massacre victims' monument and the Declaration signatories' headstones are the most-visited markers.
King's Chapel Burying Ground
58 Tremont Street, immediately adjacent to King's Chapel. Open daily with slight seasonal variation. Less crowded than Granary mid-morning on weekdays — worth visiting then, when the tour groups thin out. Boston's oldest cemetery, established 1630.
Copp's Hill Burying Ground
Hull Street, North End. Open daily 9 AM–5 PM. The least visited during normal hours — on a mid-week morning you may have it almost to yourself. Find the Malcom gravestone with musket-ball damage in the western section near the Hull Street entrance. Easy to combine with a walk through the North End.
Central Burying Ground
Boylston Street side of Boston Common. Open during park hours. Walk in from the Boylston Street path — easy to miss; look for the small entrance along the wall. Not a Freedom Trail stop and not on the ghost tour, but worth a 10-minute detour if you want to see all four.
Recommended sequence
Start with King's Chapel Burying Ground (oldest, least crowded on quiet mornings — 20–30 minutes). Then Granary (most famous). Then Copp's Hill (most historically layered — allow 30–40 minutes). End with the Ghosts & Gravestones tour after dark for after-hours access to Granary and Copp's Hill.
What to bring
Flat, comfortable shoes — paths are uneven. A layer for evening visits even in summer; Boston nights get cold. In October, dress warmly and expect temperature drops after sunset. All four grounds are free to enter during opening hours with no booking required.
Boston's Haunted Graveyards: Common Questions Answered
Hours, access, the after-hours tour and what to expect — the questions most visitors ask before they go.
Are Boston's historic burying grounds free to visit?
Yes — all four downtown burying grounds are free to enter during opening hours. Granary, King's Chapel and Copp's Hill are open daily from roughly 9 AM to 5 PM; Central Burying Ground in Boston Common is open during park hours. No tickets or booking required. The after-hours access offered by the Ghosts & Gravestones tour is the only way to enter Granary or Copp's Hill once the gates have closed.
What graveyards does Ghosts & Gravestones visit?
The tour makes on-foot stops inside both Copp's Hill Burying Ground (North End) and Granary Burying Ground (downtown Tremont Street) — both after the cemeteries have officially closed to the public. The trolley route also passes King's Chapel Burying Ground. See our full Boston ghost tours ranking if you're comparing other options.
Can you visit the graveyards at night without a tour?
No. All four downtown burying grounds close at dusk. The Ghosts & Gravestones tour has specific arrangements for after-hours access to Copp's Hill and Granary — this access is not available to independent visitors.
How scary is the Ghosts & Gravestones tour?
The tour is theatrical and atmospheric rather than frightening in the jump-scare sense. The history it presents is genuinely disturbing — executions, dismemberment, body snatching, colonial violence — but delivered as historical narrative, not horror entertainment. The PG-13 rating is accurate. Adults who are curious about dark history will find it compelling; visitors looking for a haunted-house experience should adjust expectations. Read the full Boston ghost tours comparison for more on what each format delivers.
Is Granary or Copp's Hill more interesting?
They offer different things. Granary has the famous names — Adams, Hancock, Revere, the Boston Massacre victims — and the layered story of the relocated and missing graves. Copp's Hill has the musket-ball damage on the Malcom gravestone, the New Guinea section where more than 1,000 Black Bostonians are buried, and Cotton Mather. Both reward attention, and the Ghosts & Gravestones tour covers both in sequence.
What should I wear to visit the graveyards at night?
The Ghosts & Gravestones tour runs outdoors after dark. Boston evenings can be cold even in summer; bring a layer. Cobblestone surfaces at the cemetery stops require flat, comfortable footwear. In October, dress for temperatures that drop significantly after sunset.
Are there guided walking tours of Boston's graveyards?
Yes — Ghost City Tours runs a Death and Dying walking ghost tour that covers Granary and King's Chapel Burying Ground among other downtown sites. For a comparison of all ghost-tour formats — walking, trolley, pub crawl — see our guide to walking vs trolley vs pub crawl.