Geitmyra farm is documented back to 1696. A few years later the property became part of Ullevål, and then excreted as its own property in 1755 - and then used for a cemetery from 1884. From the beginning the cemetery included some areas that were later transferred to the hospital, Geitmyra school gardens (located at Geitmyra farm, inside the cemetery), and street extensions. The area is still larger today, as the cemetery has been expanded in other directions.

The chapel at Nordre gravlund is at the main gate to the cemetery. It was originally a 1700's barn, which, at the construction of the cemetery in 1883-84, was converted into a chapel and consecrated on July 14, 1884.

The cemetery is (160 dekar) 39,54 acres (US/UK) and is located between Ullevål University Hospital and Sagene district. On one side, the cemetery borders Thulstrups gate, Kierschows gate and Uelands gate (gate = street). At one end there is a footpath from the hospital area, at the other there is Jutulveien, while Tåsenveien (vei = road) goes diagonally through the cemetery and divides it into two.

In the cemetery there is a monument in memory of 23 members of the Central Committee of the Norwegian Communist Party (NKP), killed during World War II - was unveiled in 1984. The cemetery has a named memory grove (navnet minnelund) for urns. There is a separate burial ground for Diakonhjemmet. In 2005, it set up a tripod with stone slabs (stativ med steinplater) that show the name of the deaconesses who is buried so early that the graves have been deleted.

On the eastern part of the cemetery stand No. 68 of 81 numbered boundary stones which marked the 1878 municipal boundary between Kristiania (Oslo) and Aker. These two municipalities were merged in 1948 under the name Oslo.