Aberdeen City Council is responsible for 17 cemeteries in Aberdeen. View the cemeteries and indictive lairs locations on a map.
There is a babies' section at Hazlehead Cemetery for the bereaved parents of stillborn or young babies.
Memorials for this section have been developed in consultation with SANDS.
The Grove Cemetery has a Jewish burial section and there are Muslim burial sections at Hazlehead and Newhills Cemeteries.
If there is a specific requirement for burial based on religious grounds then please let the funeral arranger and Bereavement Services know.
Lairs
New burial lairs are available at our cemeteries in Hazlehead, Newhills and Dyce. Lairs in Newhills and Dyce can only be bought as and when required for immediate use. There are burial lairs in Hazlehead that can be reserved for 10 year periods by paying £100 then £100 every 10 years thereafter until the grave is to be used. At that point the amount you have already paid is deducted from the price of a lair at that time.
You do not own the land when you buy a lair. What you have bought is 'Right of Burial' within the lair.
Depending on ground conditions, graves can accommodate up to three coffin interments plus up to six sets of cremated remains. We need to know lair section and number, lairholders name, or dates of previous interments in the lair to establish if there is room in the grave for further burials.
Casket ground (for the interment of cremated remains) is also available in these cemeteries on a when needed basis.
Lairs can be sold back to the council or transferred to another person. Contact Bereavement Services for more information. If a lair has not been used or transferred to another family member after 100 years the council can terminate the exclusive right of burial after appropriate checks and measures have been carried out.
Cremation casket lairs
Cremated remains in a casket can be interred in lairs which are available in several of Aberdeen City Council's cemeteries. Each of these lairs can accommodate two caskets. If a memorial headstone is required for the lair then it should be purchased from a monumental mason.
Memorials
All headstones, memorials and inscriptions must be authorised by the council in advance. There is no requirement for a headstone or memorial to be erected. This is a matter of choice for the family or executors.
Memorabilia, mementoes and ornamentation must be kept within the memorial border. You can download plans showing the sizes of the memorial border below:
Memorial benches in cemeteries can be arranged.
Contact Bereavement Services for more information.
Headstone inspection programme
We are currently inspecting all the headstones in our cemeteries as part of our duties to ensure each site is a safe environment for visitors and staff. You can download the document below to find out more: