Colonial Burial Ground with New Hampshire's Strongest Paranormal Reputation
Gilson Road, Nashua, NH 03062
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free. The cemetery is on a public road and accessible during daylight hours; visitors are asked to respect posted hours and avoid late-night activity that disturbs neighbors.
Access
Limited Access
Grass and uneven ground; some stones broken or sunken
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1800 · Gilson Family Burial Ground · Walter Gilson Grave (1811) · Early 19th Century Cemetery
Gilson Road Cemetery is a small family burial ground in the Hollis section of Nashua, New Hampshire, with stones dating to the early nineteenth century. The cemetery served the Gilson family and surrounding farming community as the area was settled. Today it sits along a quiet road that has been developed with newer homes around its perimeter.
The most distinctive marker in the cemetery is that of Walter Gilson, who died in 1811 at the age of three. The stone has a round hole drilled completely through it; the purpose of the hole has not been definitively explained, though local historians have proposed both decorative and practical theories about the unusual feature.
Lisa Rogak's 2004 edition of Stones and Bones of New England described Gilson Road Cemetery as having a reputation as New Hampshire's most haunted cemetery. Paranormal researcher Fiona Broome has investigated the site since 2008, and her work along with The Cabinet Press's local reporting has kept the cemetery in the regional ghost-story circulation.
Sources
The Gilson Road Cemetery is documented in New Hampshire folklore as one of the most-reported paranormal sites in the state. Fiona Broome, a regional paranormal researcher, has investigated the cemetery and adjacent woods since 2008 and describes a green glowing effect over Joseph Gilson's grave, a high concentration of unexplained orbs in photography, sustained cold spots, and reports of physical sensation including being pushed.
Visitors and tour participants have described misty figures moving among the stones, a woman in white observed both inside the cemetery and on Gilson Road, the cry of an infant, and a man dressed in nineteenth-century clothing observed walking the boundary. The cemetery also carries a participatory urban legend: that shouting from the road, claiming to have someone's baby, produces an apparition response.
Walter Gilson's stone, with its drilled round hole, is the most-photographed marker and is centrally featured in many of the accounts. The Cabinet Press and New England Folklore have documented the site as a sustained subject of regional ghost-tourism interest.
The cemetery is in a residential neighborhood; visitors are asked to respect both the dead and the living, and to avoid late-night activity that disturbs residents.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the small Gilson family burial ground, which contains stones dating to the early 1800s. The grave of Walter Gilson, who died in 1811 at age three, is notable for the round hole drilled through the stone. Surrounding woods are private; stay on the cemetery grounds and adjacent road shoulder.
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