Skeleton Park

McBurney or “Skeleton” park as it is know by locals, is a 4 acre plot of land in central Kingston Ontario that was once a mass grave site for approximately 10,000 people between 1813 and 1865. The common or upper burial ground as it was originally called, filled quickly due to several devastating epidemics including malaria, cholera and typhus killing a large number of Scottish and Irish immigrants who’s bodies were often buried quickly and hastily in mass graves due to limited space and fear of further outbreak of airborne disease.

The site also fell victim to a criminal ring called the Resurrectionists who would unearth bodies after burial to be sold to the medical department of Queens University for student lab use. Rarely were any questions asked by authorities about the sources of the school’s cadavers, suggesting the common nature of this practice.

After falling into a state of disrepute from vandalism and neglect, the Church proposed that the bodies be relocated and the land be converted into a city park. The bill was passed with various degrees of approval from the local people, and in 1894 the plot was officially renamed Frontenac Park, then McBurney Park in 1965. However, a liberal estimate of less than 1000 bodies were ever removed from the site, leaving behind the vast majority of the remains with little more than a layer of grass seed over the top.

Today the site is host to many tales of ghostly hauntings and strange encounters, and if you take a walk through on a summer night, you can still see the edges of a few flattened headstones protruding out from the grass as a gentle reminder of the dark and troublesome history laying just beneath the surface.