Established in 1859 after pioneer Tom Donlon fell to his death from the church roof; now home to the city's official annual flashlight ghost tour.
6600 Donlon Way, Dublin, CA 94568
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Annual 'Ghosts of Dublin' flashlight tour is ticketed; check city website for current pricing. Cemetery grounds publicly accessible during daylight hours.
Access
Limited Access
Uneven cemetery grounds; the flashlight tour requires walking on grass and gravel paths after dark
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1859 · Alameda County Pioneer Cemetery · Old St. Raymond's Church (1859) · Irish Immigrant Settlement History · City of Dublin Historic Site
The history of Dublin Pioneer Cemetery begins with a death that preceded the cemetery itself. Tom Donlon, an Irish immigrant who had settled in the Amador Valley in the 1840s, donated land for the construction of St. Raymond's Catholic Church in the late 1850s. During construction work on the church structure, Donlon fell from the roof and died from his injuries. He became one of the first people interred in what became the pioneer cemetery on the same land.
St. Raymond's Church was completed in 1859 and served the Amador Valley's Catholic community through the late 19th century. The original frame church structure survives and is now known as Old St. Raymond's Church — distinguished from a later St. Raymond's parish building constructed in the 20th century. The original building is one of the oldest surviving structures in the Tri-Valley region.
Over the following decades, the pioneer cemetery accumulated more than 600 graves. Many markers belong to the Irish immigrant families who settled the valley during the 1840s through 1870s, including extended members of the Donlon, Murray, and other founding families. The Donlon family plot occupies a prominent section.
The City of Dublin eventually assumed stewardship of the site as the surrounding community urbanized through the post-war suburban development period. The cemetery was documented by local historians and the Alameda County historical preservation program. The Wikipedia article on Dublin Pioneer Cemetery provides detailed records of the founding period and the Donlon family history.
Sources
The documented paranormal investigations at Dublin Pioneer Cemetery and Old St. Raymond's Church are more formal than most sites of this type. The Bay Area Paranormal Society conducted investigations inside the church structure and reported capturing EVP recordings — including what the investigators described as a child's voice interacting with their equipment — as well as unexplained sounds inconsistent with the building's known acoustic properties.
The Patch reporting on Dublin's haunted landmarks adds a specific local legend: a ghostly hound reportedly seen on the cemetery grounds. This type of spectral animal report is uncommon in California paranormal folklore, which tends more toward human apparitions, and the Patch account treats it as a distinct and credible element of the site's documented lore rather than generic background noise.
What grounds the site's reputation most firmly is the city's own involvement. The City of Dublin operates the annual 'Ghosts of Dublin' flashlight tour as an official municipal event — booking through the city's own website, city staff or contracted guides leading the tour. A municipal government doesn't typically lend its name to paranormal programming without some confidence in the historical basis for the claims being made. The tour has run for multiple years as part of Dublin's official public programming.
Notable Entities
The City of Dublin operates this annual evening flashlight tour through the pioneer cemetery and around Old St. Raymond's Church. The tour draws on the cemetery's documented founding history and the paranormal reports gathered from the site over decades. The Bay Area Paranormal Society documented EVP results and anomalous recordings from within the church structure.
The Dublin Pioneer Cemetery is publicly accessible during daylight hours. Over 600 pioneer graves dating to the mid-19th century are preserved here, including the Donlon family plot. Old St. Raymond's Church (1859) stands adjacent — one of the oldest surviving structures in the Tri-Valley area.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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