Bukit Brown Cemetery
Bukit Brown Cemetery
4.5
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Monday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Tuesday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Wednesday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Thursday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Friday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Saturday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Sunday
12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Tours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Full view
The area
Neighbourhood: Mount Pleasant
Reach out directly
Best nearby
Restaurants
2,453 within 5 kms
Attractions
880 within 10 kms
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
247 reviews
Excellent
167
Very good
67
Average
12
Poor
0
Terrible
1
Wilbur W
1 contribution
May 2024 • Couples
Had a chance to take a guided tour conducted by Darren. Had a great 3 hour session exploring the cemetery and hearing the stories about the origins of the cemetery as well as the individual stories of people buried there. Really appreciate how Darren was able to share stories of individuals buried there and how they were all linked to the history of Singapore. The details and the intricacies of the tombstones were all made to come alive through the stories related by Darren.
Wonderful way to spend a morning. Do make time for this tour.
Wonderful way to spend a morning. Do make time for this tour.
Written 26 May 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Josie2401
7 contributions
Dec 2020 • Friends
Thanks to COVID, I finally visited the resting place of Singapore's pioneers last Saturday. It was time well-spent.
Love the tranquility of the place with its large variety of fauna & flora.
Darren, our guide, is very knowledgeable & an excellent story-teller. He shared with us the
history of this cemetery and its residents, how the British's concept of burying their dead did not sit well with the Chinese burial practices. We also learnt how to identify the tomb of a Hokkien & a Teochew person. The inscriptions of the death date are quite interesting. Beautiful tiles on some of the tombs.
Would definitely visit it again!
Love the tranquility of the place with its large variety of fauna & flora.
Darren, our guide, is very knowledgeable & an excellent story-teller. He shared with us the
history of this cemetery and its residents, how the British's concept of burying their dead did not sit well with the Chinese burial practices. We also learnt how to identify the tomb of a Hokkien & a Teochew person. The inscriptions of the death date are quite interesting. Beautiful tiles on some of the tombs.
Would definitely visit it again!
Written 22 December 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sandy T
6 contributions
Jul 2022 • Solo
It was really nice to hear from Mr Darren Koh whom have spoken to many descendants from the tombstone of various individuals.
By retelling these stories, he made history come alive. And makes it not-so-spooky to visit a cemetery.
I have known many cemeteries.
Bidadari have already gone down memory lane.
Come pay Bukit brown a visit and come on board this guided tour lead by the Brownies. The tour takes place, rain or shine. This tour lead by Darren Koh makes my first trip so worthwhile!!
His topic encompasses the different cemeteries in early Singapore, coolies lives of the poor who died and had to be buried. Chinese believes (some superstitious, some auspicious, of 3 Spirits and 7 Souls), WWII stories, love stories, pioneer stories, different ethnic groups burial rites encrypt on the tombstone of how many wives the man had, whether dead or alive. It makes me really interested to go grab books and to find out more about BBC.
Don't miss the opportunity to go on an exploration tour to dig deep into heritage part of Singapore dated back by more than a century ago.
By retelling these stories, he made history come alive. And makes it not-so-spooky to visit a cemetery.
I have known many cemeteries.
Bidadari have already gone down memory lane.
Come pay Bukit brown a visit and come on board this guided tour lead by the Brownies. The tour takes place, rain or shine. This tour lead by Darren Koh makes my first trip so worthwhile!!
His topic encompasses the different cemeteries in early Singapore, coolies lives of the poor who died and had to be buried. Chinese believes (some superstitious, some auspicious, of 3 Spirits and 7 Souls), WWII stories, love stories, pioneer stories, different ethnic groups burial rites encrypt on the tombstone of how many wives the man had, whether dead or alive. It makes me really interested to go grab books and to find out more about BBC.
Don't miss the opportunity to go on an exploration tour to dig deep into heritage part of Singapore dated back by more than a century ago.
Written 27 July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Eden
1 contribution
Dec 2020 • Friends
It was a pleasant experience and I learnt a lot. It's incredibly interesting and really intriguing to see that the men and women who set the foundations for Singapore. Men who donated money to build schools , hospitals and all sorts of infrastructures. Cemeteries over 100 years old with famous men that helped fund revolutions in China , eventually founding the Republic Of China. I would like to thank our guide， Fabian Tee for his great guiding. He is very knowledgeable .
Overall , I highly recommend visiting Bukit Brown
Overall , I highly recommend visiting Bukit Brown
Written 11 December 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Christian S
3 contributions
Oct 2024 • Solo
It sounded interesting to have an abandoned cemetery and nature to explore. Starting out from the bus stop Aft Kheam Rock Road, I soon bumped into a small group guided by a friends of Bukit Brown who invited me to join their tour. I learned a lot about the history of Singapore and immigration which can be told at hand of the graves and the inscriptions. As a Westerner, I had and would have had no idea. Claire, the guide was like a walking encyclopedia. Thank you very much for 'adopting' me to the group. There must be a tremendous amount of volunteer work going into preserving this gem without any official support. I hope many people discover this remote gem and help to preserve this green island with a great heritage. Lots of graves are still overgrown but some have been cleared. With all the jungle, there are tons of bird and we even spotted a Molitor lizard on a 8m tree top. There are some trees in a grove that are said to have inspired the Avatar movie scenes.
Quite an experience in such a high-tech town. And thanks to the friends of Built Brown for the hospitality to join the tour and share the wealth of Singapore heritage and history.
Quite an experience in such a high-tech town. And thanks to the friends of Built Brown for the hospitality to join the tour and share the wealth of Singapore heritage and history.
Written 12 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Juneeta G
Singapore, Singapore21 contributions
Jul 2021 • Friends
Had a really good experience with our guide, Fabian from "All Things Bukit Brown". He was very knowledgeable and explained patiently the history behind significant tombstones, landmarks and artefacts in Bukit Brown Cemetery. We were lucky to have chanced upon him while doing a self tour ourselves and he very kindly adopted us into his group, foc :) I hope the cemetery gets preseved as it is rich in history 👍
Written 2 August 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
wanita01
London125 contributions
Jan 2020
An excellent Sunday morning outing to a real hidden gem, a stunning historical graveyard with an amazingly rich cultural heritage. Besides learning about the complexities of burial rituals among the Hokkien and Teochew, there are wonderful stories of individual people who lived in Singapore during the early years. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and would certainly do it again. It certainly should be a must do for any culture-vulture. Finding the place can be a bit hard the first time, but its well worth the effort.
Written 13 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Suzie Q
2 contributions
Mar 2020 • Friends
My second time joining a day time walking tour of Bukit Brown. The guides were armed with a wealth of knowledge, and the tales of the different residents and their colourful lives was definitely the high point of the walk for me.
Would recommend it to everyone to start discovering more about singapores history.
Looking forward to going again, hopefully for the CRA tour :)
Would recommend it to everyone to start discovering more about singapores history.
Looking forward to going again, hopefully for the CRA tour :)
Written 22 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
tcyserene
Singapore, Singapore24 contributions
Jul 2024 • Solo
I was taken aback by the trash, makeshift shelter with weather-worn tables and chairs at meeting point. [Thankfully, trash was cleared by a volunteer by end of the walk.] I smelled burning and saw ash in the air. The highway was too close for comfort. All these weren't my experience four years ago.
My guides were Fabian and Chyen-Yee. They gave intro/ background to Bukit Brown and shared pictures that increased understanding. They helped to make sense of the inscriptions on tombstones; dates connecting to different Chinese emperors' rule, intentional writing of certain Chinese characters differently (not a mistake) as expression of their loyalty and lament for being away, wives written in the order of left and right, brackets used for the child(ren) who passed away before the patriarch.
Fabian shared as many lives as he could within the duration of the walk because of their invaluable contributions to schools, hospital, fundraising. I appreciate that he did not shy away from sharing the life of making money from opium and donating for Chinese title rank in return. My favourite time was at Boo Liat's tomb where most of us found a spot to sit. With a breeze and shade, I felt cosy learning about him at his resting place.
Lastly, we passed by an installation in-progress, made up of selected tombstones and relics from exhumed tombs that made way for the new highway. I fear for the remaining tombs to meet the same fate. It is our great loss not able to see it in original state. I hope the decision makers ask the right questions and one of it being; "will our future generation asked us why we did not save this piece of history for them?"
My guides were Fabian and Chyen-Yee. They gave intro/ background to Bukit Brown and shared pictures that increased understanding. They helped to make sense of the inscriptions on tombstones; dates connecting to different Chinese emperors' rule, intentional writing of certain Chinese characters differently (not a mistake) as expression of their loyalty and lament for being away, wives written in the order of left and right, brackets used for the child(ren) who passed away before the patriarch.
Fabian shared as many lives as he could within the duration of the walk because of their invaluable contributions to schools, hospital, fundraising. I appreciate that he did not shy away from sharing the life of making money from opium and donating for Chinese title rank in return. My favourite time was at Boo Liat's tomb where most of us found a spot to sit. With a breeze and shade, I felt cosy learning about him at his resting place.
Lastly, we passed by an installation in-progress, made up of selected tombstones and relics from exhumed tombs that made way for the new highway. I fear for the remaining tombs to meet the same fate. It is our great loss not able to see it in original state. I hope the decision makers ask the right questions and one of it being; "will our future generation asked us why we did not save this piece of history for them?"
Written 23 July 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ch00G
Singapore, Singapore33 contributions
Dec 2020
Darren (from an informal group of Bukit Brown enthusiast) is an excellent story teller and guide, who'll bring you around the hills to show you more than just tombs. The cemetery does not look big from the highway but it is actually a humongous place spanning over and under the highway. There is so much of Singapore's history and stories of individuals in pre-independent times of Singapore that comes alive under Darren's narration. Do not miss this place before more of it gets taken down.
tip: slap yourself with the strongest mosquito repellent you can find! the mosquitoes here are merciless
tip: slap yourself with the strongest mosquito repellent you can find! the mosquitoes here are merciless
Written 21 December 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi there
Please advise where and how to find a tour guide for this walk ?
Thanks
Written 19 January 2019
There's a group of volunteers that organises tours (they have a group on Facebook) - they are not very frequent and there were none when I was there so can't give more details or recommend them
Written 20 January 2019
The nearest MRT Station and the bus to take to Hill 2& 5 at Sime road
Written 1 May 2018
Zao an / Selamat pagi Lausaylia,
There is a website which includes the numbers 10124 at the end of its address which will tell you everything about Hills 2 & 5. Apparently Trip Advisor doesn't allow website links, so I can't write it in full, but you'll find it if you do a search. It provides maps and everything related to the meeting points at Hills 2 & 5.
But I still think that my way: cross Thomson, go along Olive, Joan, Andrew to Jalan Mashor & take the path on the right where Mashor becomes Gymkhana is a very quick (15min on foot) and easy way to get to the Ring Road.
Enjoy your visit.
Jeanette.
Written 1 May 2018
What is the best place to enter the cemetary as the entrance at Khaem Hock rd seems to be closed now due to building works.
Written 12 February 2015
Actually the old access road via Lorong Halwa was available for access till about a month ago when the former gates were relocated to the new access road.
There are now 2 access roads, depending on which part of the cemetery you are visiting. More information and pictures can be found at bukitbrown . com (sorry can't post URL's in the answer)
Written 5 December 2015
Showing results 1-4 of 4
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing