Movilla Cemetery, Old Movilla Road, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23

Movilla Cemetery is a large burial ground on the eastern outskirts of Newtownards, roughly pentagonal in plan and measuring approximately 320 metres by 240 metres at its greatest extent. The cemetery is bounded to the east by the old Movilla Road and contains the ruins of Movilla Abbey, a medieval monastery whose northern facade forms part of a high rubble wall facing directly onto Movilla Road.

The abbey itself is said to have been founded by St. Finian in 540. It was raided by Norse forces in 824 but recovered and remained in use until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Before around 1850, the graveyard was situated on the north side of Movilla Road, but by 1858 the road had been redirected along the north face of the ruin. In 1876 the cemetery was taken over by the Newtownards Burial Board and is now under the care of Ards Borough Council.

The cemetery contains the oldest gravestones within the abbey ruins, which are medieval in date. Many gravestones in the immediate vicinity of the abbey date from the seventeenth century onwards. The cemetery contains over 200 gravestones dating from before 1800 and 750 from between 1800 and 1864, with the oldest stone outside the church dating from 1632. The nineteenth century is particularly well represented, with many headstones bearing Masonic carvings. Amongst the more elaborate tombs is the Corry family grave to the south of the abbey ruins, which consists of a miniature Greek Doric temple. A large barrel vault of the 1830s belonging to the McFadden family of Newtownards stands a short distance southwest of the abbey. Some graves belong to persons who died as a result of the events of 1798, including Archibald Warwick and Robert Robinson; the cemetery itself served as the meeting point for insurgents before they marched to attack Newtownards market house on 10 June 1798.

A small picturesque cemetery lodge, built around 1876 presumably as the caretaker's residence, stands at the main eastern entrance. The southern half of the cemetery, which generally contains the more recent graves, appears to have been formally laid out. Due to wear, grave subsidence and recent storms, many headstones have collapsed and some are in danger of irreparable damage. Some relatively recent tombs, not entirely appropriate to the setting, have been sited within the old abbey walls.