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743 Upper Newtownards Road
Belfast
BT16 2QY
Month | Day | Open |
---|---|---|
1 to 31 October | Monday to Saturday | 8am to 6pm |
Sunday | 10am to 6pm | |
1 November to 28 February | Monday to Saturday | 8am to 4pm |
Sunday | 10am to 4pm | |
1 to 31 March | Monday to Saturday | 8am to 6pm |
Sunday | 10am to 6pm | |
1 April to 30 September | Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday | 8am to 6pm |
Tuesday and Thursday | 8am to 8pm | |
Sunday | 10am to 6pm |
Take Glider route G1 in the direction of Dundonald Park and Ride from Belfast city centre. Metro routes 20 and 20A also pass the cemetery. Limited parking is available on the cemetery roads but there is a five miles per hour speed limit throughout the site.
Access to many graves is along narrow and uneven grass paths. The cemetery site office has a ramp but its layout is not suitable for wheelchairs. There are no disabled toilet facilities.
Dundonald Cemetery opened as a municipal burial ground in 1905.
There are no new grave plots available in the cemetery, but burials still take place in existing graves. However, we only provide a grave burial service and do not offer natural burials in the cemetery.
The entrance to the cemetery is marked by an imposing set of black and gold double gates. At the highest point stands a grey limestone war memorial, around five metres high. It is embedded with large bronze Excalibur-type swords which form the shape of a cross at the top of the monument.
The engraving reads:
This cross of sacrifice is one in design and intention with those which have been set up in France and Belgium and other places throughout the world where our dead of the Great War are laid to rest. Their name liveth for evermore.
In 1895, Belfast Corporation (now the council) realised that more burial space was needed to cope with the city's growing population. Two years later, it bought 45 acres of land at Ballymiscaw, Dundonald, for £5,600. The site was known locally as Donall’s Fortress because of a nearby fort.
In 1904, plots were allocated out and a quarter of the cemetery was set aside for Roman Catholic burials, a decision which was later revised. The first burial in Dundonald Cemetery took place on 19 September 1905.
The County Down railway once ran along the rear boundary of the graveyard. Cemetery records show that, on one occasion, a horse pulling a coach containing relatives returning from a funeral was startled by a passing train. The horse bolted and damaged three tomb railings in the burial ground before being brought under control. The railway line is now the Comber Greenway, a seven-mile pedestrian and cycle route.
Amongst those buried in the cemetery are: