The Shaw Mausoleum, Carmavy Graveyard, Carmavy Road, Nutts Corner, Crumlin, Co Antrim

The Shaw Mausoleum

This is a late 18th-century stone vaulted mausoleum in classical style, built to commemorate William Shaw, who died on 17 July 1775 aged 52 years. The inscription plaque also records James Potter of Mount Potter, County Down, who died on 26 October 1779. The mausoleum was noticed in the Ordnance Survey memoirs of the 1830s as one of the handsome vaults belonging to the respectable Shaw family, formerly of the now-ruined Ballytweedy House in the parish of Killead. It is registered as plot number 291 in the graveyard register.

The building is a gabled rectangular mausoleum constructed of basalt rubble with slightly battered walls. The entrance faces west, set within a segmental arched gable. The entrance gable features a moulded sandstone coping and contains a low plain rectangular opening recessed between projecting battered nib walls at its base. Two granite steps lead up to the entrance, which is surmounted by an inscription panel set in a sandstone plaque in classical style. This plaque comprises a lugged frame with an open segmental pediment. The entrance itself contains a small iron barred gate.

The side elevations present blank walls of basalt rubble. The roof is finished in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with dark ridge tiles, resting on plain projecting sandstone eaves courses. The rear gable is of basalt rubble with sandstone coping to the triangular gable and contains a recessed circular sandstone panel with a circular opening.

The mausoleum stands within a walled historic graveyard in a very rural area, positioned approximately on an east to west axis with two other mausolea to its west. The rear of the building projects beyond the east boundary of the graveyard, with the boundary wall abutting it on each side. The rear gable, including the circular opening, is partly hidden by an adjacent shed located within the rear garden of the adjoining graveyard caretaker's house. Grass surrounds the front and sides of the building, creating a pleasant setting within the attractive and historic graveyard environment.