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Bilbao British Cemetery

  • Country Spain
  • Total identified casualties 58 Find these casualties
  • Identified casualties from First & Second World War
  • GPS Coordinates Latitude: 43.298557, Longitude: -2.916639
BILBAO BRITISH CEMETERY - CWGC
BILBAO BRITISH CEMETERY - CWGC

Location information

Bilbao is a seaport in the north of Spain. The British Cemetery is about 8 kilometres north-east of the town, on the road to Derio. If arriving by air, turn left on leaving the airport and continue for a short distance to Sondika village. On leaving Sondika village the cemetery, located within a small communal cemetery (there is a tiny church), will be found approximately 100 metres off the main road. GPS Co-ordinates: 43° 17’54.8”N 2°54’59.9W

Visiting information

The cemetery is not signposted. It is a municipal cemetery in Bilbao, immediately south of Bilbao Airport. The CWGC section is in the far-right hand corner from the main entrance. The entrance is at the junction of Errementeria Kalea and Elotxelerri Bidea. The cemetery is between a football pitch and a park (Elotxerlerri Parkea).

ARRIVAL

There is a path from the main road through the public cemetery, to the CWGC plot which is in the rear right-hand corner of the cemetery.

PARKING

It is possible outside the main entrance within 5 metres of the gate. There is off-street parking on Errementeria Kalea, the road immediately west of the entrance gate. There is a shallow concrete drainage channel between the road and parking area. There is a 100 mm high concrete kerb adjacent to the parking alongside the footpath. The footpath along the road is comprised of small 2 centimetre square red and white tiles.

ACCESS LAYOUT AND MAIN ENTRANCE

At the side of the main road, there is a gate comprised of 2 black metal sections, approximately 3 metres wide, and the gates open inwards onto a tarmac driveway into the cemetery.

The CWGC section is in the northeast corner of the site.

The tarmac road continues on approximately 40 metres, to another tall metal gate with two sections, the main entrance into the cemetery. Tall, heavy black metal gate sections are between two tall stone pillars. The right section of the gate should be open. A tarmac pathway continues on another 50 metres, with a gravel pathway continuing on another 40 metres to the CWGC section.

The site is comprised of a Cross of Sacrifice at the rear of the plot, with rows of headstones in front and a hedge at the rear of the site.

There is a Cemetery Register Box built into a stone pillar near the entrance to the plot. There is a small step up to paving in front of the pillar, approximately 25 mm.

Internal paths are grass the ground surface is undulating.

ALTERNATIVE ACCESS

There is no alternative entrance to the cemetery.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The cemetery is normally open to the public.

History information

The British Cemetery at Bilbao, contains a plot of 56 Commonwealth war graves and 2 Polish airmen. Of these, 48 are Commonwealth casualties of the 1939-1945 War. The majority of these men were originally buried in the following scattered cemeteries on the northern and western coasts of Spain, chiefly in Galicia, where permanent maintenance of the graves could not be assured:- Burela Cemetery; Carino Cemetery; Caeres Cemetery; Cedeira Cemetery; Corme Cemetery; Corunna Cemetery; El Grove Arosa Bay Cemetery; Jornes Churchyard; Marin Cemetery; Puerto de Barquero Cemetery; Randin (St. Juan) Churchyard; Ribadeo Cemetery; Lugo; and Vigo Civil Cemetery.

The plot also contains four 1914-1918 War casualties and 3 special memorials, which commemorated men who were buried during that war in Carino (San Bartolome) Cemetery, Santa Pola Roman Catholic Cemetery and Valencia Provincial Roman Catholic Cemetery, but whose graves are now lost. An additional 1914-18 war grave (a merchant seaman who was initially buried in the Town Cemetery at Ondarroa, on the coast of the same Province, and then in the old British Protestant Cemetery) can be found amongst the civilians graves in Plot G.