graveyard creepy spooky
Fancy your own graveyard? (representative image) istock

Fancy some fune-real estate? Look no further than the land of song, Wales.

A graveyard is going on auction, with a bargain guide price of £18,000 (€20,300) in Swansea.


The Babell Chapel and Cemetery in Cwmbwrla will go to the highest bidder on 7 December, reports Wales Online.

The Babell Chapel itself was demolished in 1996, and its ruins have stayed in a derelict state ever since.

The graveyard remains, but has been left to itself and is overgrown with weeds. Most of the graves are broken or in a state of significant disrepair.

"I think people are concerned about the condition of the graves and them being looked after," Cwmbwrla councillor Peter Black said.

Several fallen soldiers can be found among the graves, as well as the famous Welsh bard Pabellwyson, who wrote the children's hymn Hoff yw'r Iesu o blant bychain.

"We've got no idea what the plans will entail from the person who purchases it but the war graves there will need to be protected," Black said.

He added that the family of the buried will have to be consulted by the new owner.

Since the demolition of the chapel in 1996, the graveyard has become a beacon of antisocial behaviour, such as underage drinking and flytipping, Black said. He added that there had been several calls to improve the graveyard in the last 20 years.

In 2006, a group of residents opposed a council scheme to turn the graveyard into a playground for a nearby school. Many had relatives buried there.

"We do not propose to remove or disturb any remains what so ever," a spokesman for the council said.

He had assured that any gravestone or monument that could be safely transported would be relocated to a remembrance garden.

The plan died after months of protests.