“Blood Cemetery” is the local name for Pine Hill Cemetery in Hollis, near Nashua, NH. That nickname refers to the ghost of Abel Blood, who supposedly haunts the graveyard.

Urban legends claim occult connections to Abel Blood. However, history portrays him as a solid, very Christian and philanthropic member of the community. We have no reason to believe otherwise.

Whoever (or whatever) haunts Blood Cemetery… it’s probably not Abel Blood.

Pine Hill Cemetery (aka “Blood Cemetery”) is a lovely place to visit, but it doesn’t have a dramatically “haunted” feeling that we find at other ghostly sites.

However, our own experiences and reliable stories from others lead us to believe that it has some paranormal activity. We recommend this cemetery for daytime ghost hunting only.

Here are some of our reports:

• The Haunting of Abel Blood (10/1999)
• An odd misty photograph (10/1999)
• Ghost Orb or Bug? (10/1999)
• How it felt in the cemetery (10/1999)
• HALLOWEEN 1999
  • The Small Grey Ghost, a true story of the paranormal.
  • Halloween night, a baffling experience
  • November 1st, a possible Otherworldly explanation?
• More eerie events at Blood Cemetery
• Blood Cemetery’s Gothic headstone inscriptions
• Yes, it is silly: “Ghosts tampered with my gas gauge?“

To visit Blood Cemetery - Take Exit 6 (Rte. 130) from Rte. 3, go west to Nartoff Rd., and then travel north on Nartoff (which jogs right and then left) to reach this very haunted cemetery near the crest of the hill. The cemetery will be on your right. A low wooden sign suspended with chains says “Pine Hill Cemetery.” Park at the side of the road, but off the pavement to allow cars to pass easily.

Locals call this “Blood Cemetery” for its most famous ghost, Abel Blood. According to many visitors (and one of our most reliable Hollow Hill researchers, who’s seen this), Abel Blood’s headstone changes at night so the finger on the stone points down instead of heavenward.

However, the cemetery is closed dusk to dawn; the police patrol steadily, especially around Halloween. They’ve even approached us when we were photographing (legally) from the roadside.

Also, many Hollis residents don’t like the nickname “Blood Cemetery.” (We’ve had enough angry emails, thank you. We didn’t invent the nickname; we simply report the stories and folklore.) If you ask locally for directions, be sure to call it “Pine Hill Cemetery.”

There’s another reason to call the cemetery by its correct name: The Blood family name was large and widespread in New England. Many cemeteries, especially in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, include members of the Blood family.

So, if you use that name when asking for directions, you may be sent to a totally different cemetery… with its own ghost stories and Blood family graves. They all seem to be nicknamed “Blood Cemetery.”