Lyell Old Cemetery in Lyell, West Coast

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Get directions Upper Buller Gorge Road
Lyell, Buller District, West Coast 7895 New Zealand

Coordinates: -41.79685, 172.05281
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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There are 2 cemeteries in the Lyell Creek district. There's one up the hill that stopped interments in 1900 - probably due to the rocky & steep terrain being too difficult to bury people in. The 2nd one, closed to interments also, is on the flat beside Highway 6 in the Buller District. This one has only 2 headstones, where the one on the hill has 7. There are many more bodies, but due to the earthquakes last century, the headstones were destroyed or badly damaged. And, of course, the cost of headstones made it too costly for some families, so there simply are none.

The cemetery on the hill, which is a 10-15 minute walk up an easy, well kept path from the camping area, is fascinating & beautiful. It's very well maintained, surrounded by native bush & most of the remaining graves still have the wrought iron fences around them. The headstones also are very well preserved & the majority of the epitaphs are very easy to read.