It is located on Burlington Heights, a high sand and gravel isthmus that separates Hamilton's harbor on the east from Cootes Paradise on the west.

It has been a contentious issue whether a flood, which around the 1860s inundated the city, necessitated the recollection of gravestones to be amassed in one place.

From 1850 until 1892, each burial ground was administered separately, but by the beginning of the 1890s, the church wardens had difficulty paying for the maintenance and upkeep of their areas.

Oddly, there is indication that these crypts are renovations of an existing (ancient) stone building.

Even more curious, is that these crypts are half-buried in a mound of earth.