It is one of five cemeteries in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, and is particularly well known for the graves of 144 victims of the Aberfan disaster in 1966, when a colliery coal tip collapsed and killed many people in the village of Aberfan.
The cemetery is Green Flag Accredited.
[1] In 2022 the cemetery, together with the memorial garden and the area of the tip and its slide path, were listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The record of the Grade II* listed site describes it as being "of great national importance and meaning.
"[2] As well as a monument to the Aberfan disaster victims, there is also a military monument to seven soldiers drowned in the Bristol Channel in 1888.