Kilcarn cemetery, Drumreagh Road, Kilcarn, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 6LA

This is a small, rural cemetery located on the west side of the Drumreagh Road, approximately 2.5 miles southeast of Ballygowan, County Down. The cemetery is roughly rectangular, measuring around 60 metres by 40 metres, and is enclosed by a low rubble wall that is partially overgrown with vegetation. Headstones are present from at least 1757, although some heavily worn stones may be earlier.

Local tradition suggests that the cemetery occupies the site of a medieval church and has, in more recent centuries, served as a burial ground for the Catholic community within the Saintfield parish. The earliest legible headstone belongs to a Patrick Loughlin, dated 1757. In recent years, the cemetery at Carrickmannan church has become the primary burial ground for the area. The site is now primarily used as a graveyard and was formerly used as a graveyard. It is believed to date from before 1600 through its association with a potential medieval church site. Records from Carrickmannan Church and Ordnance Survey maps from 1834 and 1858-60 corroborate the cemetery’s existence and its connection to the wider parish.