A small, decaying 19th-century burial ground on Litchfield Road in Bowdoin, Maine where a circle of cedar trees rings a patch of barren earth — said by local legend to be the cursed grave of a woman hanged as a witch.
986 Litchfield Road, Bowdoin, ME 04287
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit, but this is a small rural cemetery in poor condition with many damaged stones. Treat it respectfully and do not disturb graves.
Access
Limited Access
Small rural roadside cemetery in deteriorated condition, with leaning and broken headstones and uneven ground toward the back.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1804 · Early-1800s rural Bowdoin burial ground beside the former North Church · Subject of one of midcoast Maine's best-known witch-grave legends · Documented by regional folklorists and press
North Bowdoin Cemetery is a small rural burial ground at 986 Litchfield Road in Bowdoin, Maine, in Sagadahoc County, just south of Wood School House Road. It abuts the historical site of the former North Church and contains roughly 100 to 105 marked graves, with interments dating back to about 1804. Among the oldest stones is that of Nathaniel Jelison (1750-1804).
Like many small New England farm-community cemeteries, it fell into disrepair over the 20th century. Visitors and the Bowdoin Historical Society note that many stones are now broken or leaning, with several headstones propped against a tree near the back of the north section.
The cemetery's wider fame comes from a feature at the back of the grounds: a circle of cedar trees that has grown up around a patch of earth where, according to repeated local accounts, nothing grows. This 'barren circle' is the anchor of the area's best-known piece of folklore and has been documented by Maine folklorist Peter Muise (New England Folklore) and by the Lewiston Sun Journal in coverage of Maine's haunted cemeteries.
Sources
According to the legend recounted by folklorist Peter Muise, a woman known only as Elizabeth was accused of witchcraft by her Bowdoin neighbors, dragged into the cemetery by an angry mob, and hanged from a tree. She was buried at the back of the grounds, where a circle of cedar trees later grew up around her grave while the earth at its center remained permanently bare. The 'barren circle' is said to be cursed: by the common version of the tale, anyone who steps onto the bare ground will meet a grim end, and a frequently repeated story claims that several young men who once tried to dig at the spot died in accidents soon after.
The Shadowlands seed for this site adds embellishments — a witch buried near a big stump and a mysterious star that appears to signal she is 'roaming the pit' — that do not appear in the better-documented retellings and should be treated as embroidery.
Folklorists treat the entire story as legend rather than history. Muise notes that 'Elizabeth' has no documented surname, that no witch was ever executed in Maine, and that the last witchcraft executions in New England were the Salem trials of 1692 — long before this cemetery existed. HauntBound does not attribute the grave to any named, documented historical person; the woman is unnamed in reliable sources, and the witch-execution claim is folklore, not record. The barren circle itself is real and visible; its cause is most plausibly soil or shade conditions rather than a curse.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
A self-guided daytime stop at a small, historic Bowdoin cemetery to see the 'barren circle' — a ring of cedar trees around a bare patch of earth at the back of the grounds that local legend ties to a witch's cursed grave.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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