Exeter Higher Cemetery is a large historic municipal cemetery located on St Marks Avenue in the Heavitree area of Exeter, Devon. It was opened in 1866 in response to severe overcrowding in the city's older churchyards, and represents Exeter's move toward planned Victorian "garden cemeteries" designed with both public health and landscape aesthetics in mind.

The cemetery was laid out and landscaped by Robert Veitch and Son, with chapels and a lodge designed by local architect Edward Ashworth. Originally, the grounds were divided along religious lines, with approximately 4.5 acres allocated to the Church of England and 1.5 acres to Nonconformists, each section having its own chapel—reflecting the ecclesiastical structure of the period.

Over time, Higher Cemetery expanded several times and now contains the remains of more than 73,000 people, making it one of the largest cemeteries in the South West of England. It holds over 12,000 memorials, ranging from elaborate Victorian monuments to simpler twentieth‑century headstones, illustrating changing burial customs and memorial styles.

The cemetery is notable for its historical and commemorative features. These include memorials to victims of the Exeter Theatre Royal fire of 1887, dedicated plots and monuments associated with both World War I and World War II, graves of civilian victims of the Exeter Blitz, and burials of servicemen from several Allied nations as well as German and Italian servicemen. These elements together provide a powerful record of Exeter's civic and wartime history.

Today, Higher Cemetery continues to serve the community in a limited burial capacity, particularly for ashes and selected historic plots. It also functions as a valued public green space. The Friends of Higher Cemetery, founded in 2011, actively promote the site as both a place of remembrance and a heritage landscape, offering guided walks, history talks, and a published tree trail highlighting the cemetery's mature planting.