Cliff Burton's Grave — Castro Valley, California

Cliff Burton is buried at Oakhill Memorial Park at 2465 Watkins Street in Castro Valley, California — the East Bay community where he grew up and where his family still lives. Burton was born 10 February 1962 in Castro Valley and grew up there playing classical piano before discovering bass guitar as a teenager and becoming, within a few years, one of the most technically accomplished and musically innovative bassists in rock. His grave has become a pilgrimage destination for fans of Metallica and heavy metal from around the world, regularly decorated with guitar picks, handwritten notes, and tributes that reflect the depth of affection in which he is held more than three decades after his death.

Castro Valley is an unincorporated community in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area — a suburban East Bay town of the kind that was home to many of the musicians who formed the Bay Area metal scene of the early 1980s. Burton attended Castro Valley High School and then Chabot College before joining Trauma, the local band that connected him to Metallica. His parents, Ray and Jan Burton, have continued to be present in the Metallica community and have participated in various tributes and commemorations of their son's legacy.

Oakhill Memorial Park is open daily during daylight hours and is accessible from the Castro Valley BART station approximately one mile away. Burton's grave marker is in a section of the cemetery that is straightforward to locate with reference to the cemetery's own maps. The surrounding Castro Valley community has no formal Cliff Burton heritage markers beyond the cemetery, but the East Bay's role in the formation of the Bay Area thrash scene is acknowledged in the broader history of the genre.