Dunnagan Graveyard at Eno River State Park - Durham, NC

A few weeks ago, we asked if our followers would be interested in visits to more historic locations, and the answer was overwhelmingly yes! Without further ado, our first historic location is the Dunnagan Graveyard in Eno River State Park.

🌳⚰️🌳

The easiest way to get to this site is by parking on the gravel road shoulder on Continental Drive in Durham. There is very limited parking here, so if you make it out and find there’s no space, you can also park in a lot on Old Cole Mill Road. (Swipe left to see a map we found on the Eno River Association website.) We parked on Continental and were able to enter there, so our directions use that as a starting point.

🌳⚰️🌳

The graveyard itself is not a far walk from the Continental entrance. You will go up a hill and hit a fork in the trail - go right. You will pass a very large fallen tree, go down a hill, and cross a small bridge. You will eventually see a very large stack of rocks on the right side of the trail, which is believed to be the former Dunnagan homestead. Just a little ways further up on the left, you will see Catherine Dunnagan’s grave and another much smaller grave - you have made it! Most of the graves are unmarked, but it is believed there are a number of other individuals buried there as well.

🌳⚰️🌳

If you look at the map, you can see that it is possible to make one big loop on Dunnagan Trail back to where you parked. If you have small children, we DO NOT recommend trying to do this loop. We did the loop and found 2 fallen trees along the way, and discovered there was an enormous crag of a rock we had to climb down at one point to continue the trail. If you are interested in seeing the graveyard and then taking a dip in Eno (which was our plan), just go back the way you came rather than trying to make the loop. When you get down to the river, there are a number of little areas where you can dip your feet in, and history bonus: you can see the ruins of the Durham Water Company pump station across the river.

🌳⚰️🌳

Our last tip for checking out this amazing hidden gem is WEAR BUG SPRAY, and bring extra with you.

🌳⚰️🌳

We’re looking forward to sharing about the history of this site in the coming days!

(Note: We're currently working on updating our website with our reviews. This review was originally posted on Instagram and Facebook on July 9, 2020.)