St Canice’s Old Graveyard, Roemill Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9BB

St Canice’s Old Graveyard is a picturesque graveyard located alongside Roemill Road in Limavady, County Londonderry. The site, situated in the Coolessan townland, contains memorials primarily from the 19th and early 20th centuries and is historically significant to Limavady. It adjoins Roemill Road and occupies the location of the pre-1836 Roman Catholic Church.

The graveyard is enclosed by a combination of boundary walls: a rubble stone wall runs along the northwest side, bordering Roemill Road, a concrete block wall along the northeast, with remaining sides formed by rubble stone. The entrance, located on the northwest wall, is marked by a rendered archway with a Gothic design, featuring gabled kneeler stones and a cloverleaf cross atop a sloping barge. Cast iron gates with spearhead finials complete the entrance. A white marble plaque identifies the space as ‘St Canice’s Graveyard’.

The site was formerly the location of a Roman Catholic Chapel, built in 1783. Described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833-35 as “Roe Mill Roman Catholic Chapel,” it was erected by subscription. A stone tablet above the principal door indicated it was “got erected by the Revd John Mackane annodom 1782,” and the supposed cost was 400 pounds. The chapel’s structure was shaped like the letter "T," with a horizontal arm measuring 57 feet and an upright arm 21 feet long and 24 feet broad internally. It accommodated approximately 500 people, many of whom knelt outside due to limited space. The interior was initially rudimentary, lacking a covered roof and paved floor, and featured long forms instead of pews, with an elevated section for singers.

The foundation stone for St Mary's Church (HB02/13/001), located on Irish Green Street, was laid in 1836, with the roof completed in 1844. Sunday Masses were apparently held within the walls of the new church under a temporary canopy during construction. Due to increasing numbers, Roe Mill Chapel was likely abandoned shortly after the new church's construction and subsequently demolished to provide room for graves. It does not appear on the 1848 Ordnance Survey Map. Among the memorials, a cluster at the entrance commemorates “Dr O’Brien,” who died in 1908 and is credited as the builder of the tower of St Mary’s Church. An additional memorial, a well-maintained cast iron plaque, commemorates Hugh Caulfield, who died in 1887, alongside a memorial to his grandson dated 1907.