Graveyard, Fort Road, Kilroot, Carrickfergus, BT38 9BS

This is a mid-eighteenth century cemetery located to the east of Fort Road in the townland of Kilroot, Carrickfergus. The graveyard occupies a remote rural location, contributing to its overall well-preserved state, and remains in use. Within the graveyard are the remains of a late seventeenth century Bishop’s house and the site of an earlier church, highlighting the site's significance to the local area’s history. The earliest dated memorial stone is from 1743.

The cemetery contains a mix of eighteenth to twentieth century gravestones and nineteenth-century gated plots. A bullaun stone, a stone with a basin-like depression, sits at the centre of the cemetery, supported by a red brick plinth. In the north-west corner are the remains of a bastion, with circular plan, featuring rubble walling and red brick walling above, forming a small structure that appears to be a dovecote. The south-east corner abuts the remains of a multi-storey Bishop’s house, constructed of rubble with fieldstone quoins. The west elevation of this structure has openings at each floor with red brick surrounds. The graveyard is enclosed by random rubble walling to the south, west and north, and by a more recent smooth-rendered wall to the east. Access from the west is through two rubble square pillars capped with sandstone, supporting original wrought-iron gates; to the right of the entrance gate is a stile with concrete steps.

The graveyard appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832. Griffith’s Valuation records of 1859 list the owner as Conway R. Dobbs. Subsequent Ordnance Survey maps from 1857 and 1902 also document the site.