Vault in burial ground, Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, Co Antrim

Vault in Burial Ground at Shane's Castle Park

This is an unusually proportioned stone-vaulted burial vault built in the 18th century, constructed in a plain, unornamented style. It occupies an unspoiled setting within a small burial ground near the ruins of a castle within a demesne estate. The vault is of considerable local interest as part of the development of the Shane's Castle estate, and together with an adjacent carved female harpist statue, forms an interesting group.

The vault is a rectangular structure built of mortared random rubble basalt with low walls and a high pitched stone roof of similar random rubble. The entrance faces east. The entrance front contains a central segmental arched doorway flanked by a square-headed rectangular recess to each side. The doorway is recessed and contains a replacement timber door, vertically sheeted and studded and set in a plain timber frame, with a stone doorstep. Above the doorway in the apex of the gable is a slightly recessed square stone plaque inscribed with raised letters reading "This vault was built by Shane McBrien McPhelim McShane McBrien McPhelim O'Neill Esq in the year 1722 for a burial place to himself and family of Clanneboy". A narrow vertical slit opening is present in the rear gable near ground level. The masonry throughout has been repointed with slightly recessed jointing in cement mortar, leaving the arrises of stones exposed, though some portions of old mortar remain visible.

The building was built in 1722 by Shane O'Neill, commonly known as "French John" O'Neill, as a burial vault for himself and his family. The first person known to have been interred there was French John O'Neill's wife, "Charity" O'Neill, who died in 1726. French John himself died in 1739. The last family member interred in the vault was John, first Viscount O'Neill, who was killed by rebels at Antrim in 1798. However, his remains and those of the others already buried there were later removed by his son to a new vault built around 1838 in the graveyard of Randalstown Church of Ireland church.

The origins of the burial ground itself are unknown. It is reputedly that a chapel once stood on the site, but the Ordnance Survey Memoirs reported in the 1830s that there had been no trace of it within living memory. The oldest surviving slab, dated 1684 and marking the grave of John Ffrow, still stands; the most recent noted dates from 1802, marking the grave of Bridgat Madorey. These burials were not of the O'Neill family but of villagers at Shane's Castle. The burial ground was closed by Lord O'Neill around 1803 to 1804, and to prevent its further use he opened a new graveyard outside the park at Kilbegs. Subsequently, Lord O'Neill began to root out the old burial ground in late 1815, but the outcry raised by relatives of those buried there caused him to abandon the project.

The graveyard stands in the south-west corner of an overgrown private burial ground of irregular curvilinear shape. The graveyard is enclosed by a low rubble stone wall, entered by a pedestrian gateway on the south side with modern square red brick piers with concrete caps and a modern chamfered timber gate in poor condition with a concrete step. The boundary walling along the south frontage has been later repaired along the top. The walling elsewhere retains old lime mortar pointing, though some stones are missing. Immediately outside the enclosing wall on the west to south-west side runs a sunken path bounded by high basalt rubble retaining walls; this path leads to an underground passage connecting the graveyard area with the basement area of Shane's Castle ruins. Within the graveyard the ground is rough and slightly mounded in places, with mature conifers, yew and ash trees growing. A row of fourteen headstones has been set up just within the gateway running from near the vault to the south-east corner of the graveyard; the earliest noted dates from 1684. Elsewhere other stones stand in their original position or lie on the ground. At the western end of the line of headstones, immediately adjacent to the vault, stands a carved statue of a female harpist.

The graveyard itself stands in a wooded area of agricultural grassland within the grounds of a large estate, in close proximity to the ruins of Shane's Castle and the shore of Lough Neagh. In 1988, headstones which had been lying flat on the ground were lifted and set vertically in a line just inside the entrance gateway, and a new timber gate was provided. Around the same time, a 1920s statue of a harpist was set up in the burial ground adjacent to the vault. The vault stands within the area of an ancient monument.