The Kilmainham-Bully's Acre Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Dublin. It is located in an area known as Hospital Fields, near the Kilmainham Royal Hospital (all three cemeteries in Hospital Fields are at the opposite end from the hospital - please see note at the bottom). This cemetery had a tumultuous past and had fallen into disrepair by the 1790's and was considered a public nuisance. The Kilmainham Royal Hospital cleaned it up and put a wall around it to keep out the livestock who had been digging up the bodies. It was a free, public cemetery, and numerous people were buried here. Gravediggers would steal the bodies to sell to doctors, up to 1832, when it became legal for doctors to obtain bodies.

Also in 1832, there was a cholera epidemic and burials rose dramataically. In a 10 day period ending 2 May 1832, almost 500 people were buried. It was closed for burying on 30 June 1832, due to the massive number of graves and state of the cemetery. Within the 6 months prior to the closure, there were about 3,200 burials on top of all the people who had previously been buried.

There are only about 70 headstones left today out of the 60,000-90,000 burials that took place here (it was originally a cemetery attached to a monastery in 1014). Today, the gate to the cemetery is locked, but guided tours are offerred.

Please note that Hospital Field is made up of three separate cemeteries:

1) Kilmainham-Bully's Acre (since the 1014's)

2) Kilmainham-Officer's Graveyard (across the street to the south of Bully's Acre)

3) Kilmainham-Private's Graveyard (next to Bully's Acre on the north side). This cemetery is listed in Findagrave as The Royal Hospital Cemetery.

Please see map for directions (very close to Kilmainham Gaol).