Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA 19th-century Colleton County cemetery built on donated land, considered by locals one of South Carolina's most haunted.
Highway 17-A, Cottageville, SC 29435
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission charge; public cemetery.
Access
Limited Access
Grassy cemetery grounds with uneven terrain; some grave markers may be difficult to navigate around.
Equipment
Photos OK
19th-century community cemetery on donated land · Burial relocation from 1880s · One of the most cited haunted cemeteries in Colleton County
Cottageville Cemetery sits along Highway 17-A in Colleton County, South Carolina, in the small community of Cottageville roughly midway between Walterboro and Charleston. The cemetery was established on land donated to the community in the 19th century. According to local accounts, a relocation of burials took place in the 1880s, circumstances that may have contributed to its unsettled reputation.
The oldest known grave marker in the cemetery belongs to Daisy Eleanor Ackerman, an infant whose stone is among the earliest legible markers on the property. The relocation of remains from other sites is a documented practice in South Carolina's Lowcountry from this period, often tied to road or railroad construction, property consolidation, or the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Cottageville as a community developed along the rail corridor and maintained small family and church cemeteries through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The site on Highway 17-A has been described by regional sources as one of the more frequently cited haunted cemeteries in the state.
Sources
The haunting tradition at Cottageville Cemetery centers on a specific ritual: driving around the perimeter three times while flashing headlights. This type of repetitive-action ritual is common in Southern ghost-road traditions and mirrors similar accounts attached to Parker's Ferry Road nearby.
Locals have long considered Cottageville Cemetery among the most actively haunted burial grounds in the state, though specific encounter accounts beyond the ritual tradition are not extensively documented in available sources. The infant grave of Daisy Eleanor Ackerman has drawn particular attention as the oldest marked burial — old graves of children are frequently cited in cemetery haunting folklore across the region.
The combination of relocated burials, a rural setting, and the specific car-ritual tradition places Cottageville in a distinct category of South Carolina haunted sites where the haunting is participatory rather than passive.
Notable Entities
Visitors explore the 19th-century cemetery grounds, including the grave of infant Daisy Eleanor Ackerman, the oldest marked burial. Local tradition holds that driving around the cemetery three times and flashing headlights is said to awaken the dead.
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