St John's C of I Graveyard, Graveyard Lane, Off John Street, Rathfriland, Co Down, BT34 2AH

The graveyard is situated on the southwest side of Graveyard Lane, off John Street, southwest of St John's Church. It is of local interest and contains no features of group value. The entrance is marked by a pair of wrought-iron gates featuring twisted pointed dogbars and chamfered cuboidal finials on the top bars. These are hung from strap-pointed concrete-block pillars. The graveyard is bounded on three sides by hedges and along the lane by a random rubble wall. A plot dedicated to Joseph Haslett (died 1870) and his family is immediately visible on entering; it has a polished granite headstone set within a brick-trimmed, semicircular-headed recess in the boundary wall.

The enclosed graveyard is grassed and remains in use for burials. Gravestones within vary in style and date, with small, largely indecipherable examples likely dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries, closer to the entrance; cut stone examples from the mid-19th century; and finely dressed or polished stones from the later 19th and 20th centuries.

The graveyard is associated with St John’s Parish Church, built beginning in 1730 and situated to the north. The site itself was established between 1720 and 1739, and was recorded on a 1776 Mead Estate Map. An earliest decipherable headstone dates from 1779.