Copp's Hill Burying Ground: The Boston Landmark with Bullet Holes in the Graves

You’re walking up Hull Street in Boston’s North End, past the "Skinny House" and the smell of expensive cannoli, when the pavement suddenly gives way to a sloping field of jagged slate. Most people skip this spot. They hit the Old North Church, snap a photo of the steeple where the lanterns hung, and then head straight for pizza.

That's a mistake. Honestly, Copp's Hill Burying Ground is where the real, gritty history of Boston is literally carved into stone. It isn’t just a graveyard; it’s a site of active desecration, revolutionary plotting, and a very literal "neighborhood of the dead" that’s been around since 1659.

The Graveyard the British Used for Target Practice

If you want to understand why the locals hated the British regulars so much, look at the grave of Captain Daniel Malcolm. It’s located near the Snowhill Street side of the cemetery.

Malcolm was a "Son of Liberty" and a notorious smuggler who once sneaked 60 casks of wine past British customs. When he died in 1769—mercifully before the war broke out—his epitaph described him as a "true son of Liberty" and an "enemy to oppression." The British soldiers stationed on the hill during the Siege of Boston in 1775 took offense to that.

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They didn't just ignore it. They used his headstone as a target.

If you lean in close, you can still see the circular pockmarks from musket balls. It wasn't just him, either. The hill was the highest point in the North End, so the British set up their heavy artillery right here to shell Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Imagine the scene: soldiers drinking, firing cannons over the harbor, and casually shooting at the gravestones of dead "traitors" to pass the time. It’s a level of historical pettiness you just don't get from a textbook.

More Than Just Famous Names

Everyone knows the Mathers. Increase and Cotton Mather are buried here in a low, brick table-like tomb. These were the heavyweights of Puritan intellectual life, the guys who basically ran the moral compass of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and, yes, were deeply involved in the theology behind the Salem Witch Trials.

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But Copp's Hill Burying Ground holds far more than just the "great men" of history.

• Prince Hall: Near the back, there’s a monument to the man who founded African American Freemasonry. Hall was a tireless advocate for Black education and civil rights in the late 1700s.
• The Sexton: Robert Newman, the guy who actually climbed the stairs of the Old North Church to hang those famous lanterns for Paul Revere, rests here.
• The Laborers: On the Snowhill Street side, there’s a section of unmarked graves. This was the final resting place for over 1,000 enslaved and free African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the base of the hill.

The Great Grave Shuffle

Here is something most tour guides won't tell you: the headstones aren't always where the bodies are. Basically, in the 1830s, the city decided the cemetery looked too messy. They wanted it to look more like a tidy Victorian park.

What did they do? They pulled up the headstones and rearranged them into neat, orderly rows. They didn't move the coffins. So, when you’re standing in front of a stone from 1710, you might actually be standing over someone who died in 1840. It’s a bit of a historical "oops," but it makes for great photos.

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Why You Should Visit

Visit at sunset. The view over the water toward the USS Constitution and the Bunker Hill Monument is incredible. You can see exactly why the British chose this spot for their cannons. It’s breezy, a little eerie, and strangely quiet despite being in the heart of the city.

Practical Tips for Your Visit:

1. Entrance: Use the gate on Hull Street, right across from the Old North Church's back side.
2. Look Down: The ground is incredibly uneven. Roots and shifting soil make it a trip hazard.
3. Find the Worthylake Stone: Look for the "Triple Stone" of the Worthylake family. It tells the tragic story of the first lighthouse keeper of Boston Light, who drowned with his wife and daughter in 1718.
4. Check the Epitaphs: Some are surprisingly sassy. People in the 1700s had a very dark, very direct sense of humor about death.

Your Next Step:
Walk to the Southwest corner of the burying ground near Snowhill Street. Locate Captain Daniel Malcolm's grave and run your finger over the musket ball indentations. It’s one of the few places in Boston where you can physically touch the damage caused by the Revolutionary War. After that, walk down the hill to Prince Street for some of the best North End food—you’ve earned it after a day with the dead.