Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe Eighteenth-Century Burial Ground Locals Call Blood Cemetery
Pine Hill Road, Hollis, NH 03049
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public cemetery. The grounds are closed between dusk and dawn and patrolled by Hollis police; trespassing after hours is enforced.
Access
Limited Access
Uneven grass and gravel paths over rolling hillside
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1769 · Eighteenth-Century Burial Ground · New England Folklore Site
Pine Hill Cemetery sits along Pine Hill Road in Hollis, New Hampshire, a small town in the southern part of the state near the Massachusetts border. Local accounts say the land was donated to the town in 1769 by Benjamin Parker Jr., and the cemetery is one of the older burial grounds in the region. It has remained an active municipal cemetery since then.
Members of the Blood family are buried in a section near the center of the grounds. Among them was Abel Blood, who died in 1867. His headstone became the focus of regional folklore in the late twentieth century, when stories spread that the carved finger on the stone pointed upward by day and downward at night. The original headstone was removed by the town after repeated vandalism and is no longer in place.
Persistent vandalism through the 1990s and 2000s prompted the town of Hollis to install surveillance cameras, close the cemetery between dusk and dawn, and increase police patrols. Visitors are welcome during daylight hours but should be aware that any after-hours presence is treated as trespass.
Sources
The folklore around Pine Hill Cemetery is one of the more durable rural New England ghost stories. Its centerpiece is the headstone of Abel Blood, who died in 1867. The stone was carved with a hand, finger extended upward toward heaven in the conventional nineteenth-century funerary gesture. Local tradition holds that after dark the carved finger turns downward, only to point upward again by morning.
The town removed the stone after repeated vandalism, so the inversion phenomenon now exists only in photographs and in the oral tradition surrounding the site. Local historians have found no connection between Abel Blood and any violent act or the occult; the cemetery's colloquial name simply comes from the Blood family buried there.
Beyond the headstone itself, visitors and Hollis residents have reported other phenomena along Pine Hill Road. A phantom child is said to flag down passing cars and then vanish when drivers stop. Cameras and other electronics are reported to malfunction near the gates. Some visitors describe sudden cold pockets in otherwise warm weather. These reports are part of the standard New England rural-cemetery repertoire and predate the active paranormal-tourism era.
The cemetery is now an active focus for the town of Hollis's anti-vandalism efforts. The closure between dusk and dawn is strictly enforced, and surveillance cameras cover the access points. Visitors should treat the site as a working town cemetery, not as a paranormal destination.
Notable Entities
Walk the rolling hillside of Pine Hill Cemetery during posted daytime hours. Locate the surviving Blood family stones in the central section; Abel Blood's original headstone, the one associated with the legendary pointing-hand carving, was removed by the town after repeated vandalism and is no longer in place. Respect the grounds, observe the dusk-to-dawn closure, and note the active surveillance and police patrols.
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Aerial survey · USDA NAIPHollis, NH
Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, New Hampshire, was acquired by the Town of Hollis in 1769 and is one of the older Hillsborough County burial grounds. The cemetery's better-known nickname, Blood Cemetery, derives from the prominent Blood family plot, including the 1867 grave of Abel Blood, a Christian philanthropist whose memorable surname helped seed the cemetery's modern folklore.
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