An old Colonial-era burial ground in the Kensington section of Berlin, CT, where local paranormal lore describes an aggressive guardian presence and anomalous electrical interference experienced by visitors to the right side of the cemetery entrance.
Southington Rd, Kensington, CT 06037
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public cemetery.
Access
Limited Access
Flat to gently rolling rural cemetery grounds.
Equipment
Photos OK
Kensington is a village within the Town of Berlin, Hartford County, Connecticut, incorporated in 1785. The town has several early cemeteries reflecting the 18th-century settlement patterns of central Connecticut. The Southington Road Cemetery, also referred to as the South Burying Ground or South Kensington Cemetery (a name used in a 1915 survey), is one of these Colonial-era burying grounds.
Berlin maintains a Cemetery Committee and has documented its historic burial grounds as part of local governance. The Hale Collection at the Connecticut State Library includes records from Berlin-area cemeteries, and the Berlin-Peck Memorial Library holds local history resources relevant to the town's burial grounds. The specific origins and date of founding for this cemetery were not available in publicly accessible digitized records as of research conducted May 2026.
Sources
According to the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index, the Southington Road Cemetery is guarded by an unusually aggressive spirit described as 'very old' and 'very angry.' Unlike typical cemetery hauntings, this entity is said to escalate over repeat visits: on a first visit he simply presents himself; on a second visit he allegedly causes electrical devices to malfunction, follows visitors from the grounds, and induces feelings of severe anxiety, sickness, and 'complete evilness.' The phenomena are specifically attributed to the area immediately to the right upon entering the cemetery.
According to the CT Paranormal Searchers (a Connecticut-based investigation group), investigators spent roughly 20 minutes in the reportedly active right-side section and uniformly described feelings of paranoia, unease, and a sense of being unwanted in that specific area — sensations that resolved when they exited the spot. Their rated assessment was 3.5/10. One investigator asked aloud for the spirit not to be shy; a flashlight turned on by itself, though the group was unable to replicate the result. A second independent investigation account published at A Haunted World (2013) similarly describes a team visiting the site and experiencing electronic anomalies, including a phone activating unexpectedly, and one investigator feeling an overwhelming sense of dread in the specific area described by the Shadowlands entry.
Secondary lore associated with the location includes a 'woman in white' searching for a husband who died in World War I, though this is a less-documented thread. The core tradition of the aggressive gatekeeper entity has now been independently documented by two hobbyist investigation groups, each conducting their own field visits.
Notable Entities
Explore this Colonial-era burial ground with headstones representing Berlin/Kensington's founding families. The cemetery is a legitimate historical resource independent of its paranormal reputation.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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