Clifton Street Graveyard


View larger map Address: Henry Place, Belfast, BT13 1AD (entry is via Henry Place).

Contact information: Call the Cemeteries and Crematorium Central Office on 028 9027 0296. It is open from 8.30am until 5pm (Monday to Thursday), 4.30pm (Friday) and 12.30pm (Saturday).

Opening hours: By appointment only.

Access information: Take Metro 10A-H, 12A-B or 57 from Belfast city centre. There is no car parking available at the cemetery, which contains a good network of paths and level ground throughout for those with disabilities.

About the cemetery

Clifton Street Graveyard opened in 1797 and was managed by the Belfast Charitable Society. Burials no longer take place in the cemetery, which is now a recognised historical site, and has been managed by the council since 1984.

It contains the graves of many notable families, including the Dunvilles, the Sinclairs and the McCrackens, and its history provides an important insight into the social development of the city.

Key features include a mausoleum belonging to the Dunville family, which once contained ceramic 'photographs' of the family. The Dunvilles, who produced whiskey from their distillery on Grosvenor Road, presented a large portion of land on Falls Road to Belfast in 1891. The land later became Dunville Park

There is also a memorial to George C Hyndman, a member of the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society which helped establish Botanic Gardens in 1828. It is easy to spot thanks to the statue of Hyndman's pet dog which sits on top of the memorial.

Another unusual grave belongs to Thomas Ash - its corners are marked by three ash trees (the fourth has been removed).

Video

The video below shows the layout of Clifton Street Graveyard and its history. The clip is part of the Belfast iTours project and is available through YouTube. You need to have Adobe Flash Player 10 installed on your computer to watch the video.

Press the 'play' button to view the clip.


Photo gallery

Click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of each picture (images open in a new window).You will need to have Javascript enabled to view these images which are available from Flickr

History

During the late 18th century, most burials in Belfast took place in the Parish Church of Saint George, located on High Street, Belfast. However, due to overcrowding and the threat of flooding during high tide, a replacement was needed.

The Marquis of Donegall suggested using the land directly behind the Poor House (now Clifton House) in North Queen Street. It had been founded in 1774 to help the sick, poor and destitute of the city.

His suggestion was accepted by the building’s owners, the Belfast Charitable Society, and the site was formally established in 1790, following a resolution from the Society. Burial plots in the New Burying Ground, as it became known, were put up for sale in March 1797.

To combat the risk from bodysnatchers (people who sold newly buried bodies to anatomists for profit), a wall was built around the graveyard. It failed to stop the practice however and it became common for relatives to stand guard beside new graves every night until the risk of snatching had decreased.

Families also built cages of stout iron (known as coffin guards) around coffins to deter the snatchers and the Society was eventually forced to employ watchmen to guard the cemetery.

 In 1799, the Society agreed to set aside a portion of land for those who could not pay for burials. The area became known as the ‘poor grave’.

The cemetery also contains a large unmarked plot which served as a mass grave for the victims of the 1832 cholera epidemic. And, in 1847, 1,049 burials from infectious diseases such as typhus, dysentery and smallpox were recorded on the site.

The original Clifton Street Graveyard was full by 1819 and a second area, known as the lower ground, was opened. By 1854, all the plots in this area had been sold.

 Although the Belfast Charitable Society was responsible for the maintenance of the cemetery, a report from 1884 shows that headstones and monuments had become dilapidated, railings were covered in rust and gates were unhinged and damaged.

More than £400 was raised following an appeal to families whose relatives were buried in the graveyard and the money was used to fund improvements and maintenance work. A second appeal in 1930 attracted little response but it did lead to the appointment of a full-time groundsman.

In 1969, the last groundsman left the cemetery and the keys were handed over to the military, who were posted next to the site, in Glenravel Street, until 1973. The council eventually took ownership of Clifton Street Graveyard in 1984. The last burial on the site took place in June 1984.

Famous burials

Amongst those buried in Clifton Street Graveyard are:

More information

Further information about Clifton Street Graveyard is available from the following websites: