Kilberry Graveyard

Map Reference: N871739 (2871, 2739)



When I visited this site in 1988 I recorded the follow observations: ‘a number of new and recent graves. There are also some 18th and 19th century stones. The church is an ivy-covered rectangular ruin. To the east of this is a box tomb featuring a crucifixion panel at the west end. The lid has a skull and crossbones at the east end and a coat of arms in low relief at the west end. The basin of a stone font sits just outside the west end of the church. A short distance to the southeast of the church is a stone with a conical depression which appears to be a piscina basin from the church. At the gateway of the churchyard is a stone, carved in relief, indicating that the ‘peers’ were erected by Christopher Everard of Randlestown in 1715‘. During a more recent visit (March 2009) I found that the church had been cleared of ivy. It is still a rectangular ruin with the interior almost filled with rubble. All the shrubbery has now been cleared from around the box-tomb and the crucifixion panel is now very clear. On the one remaining side panel there are two shields with very faint decoration. The decoration on the lid is very difficult to see due to a dense coating of lichen. The skull-and-crossbones etc can be better appreciated by touch than by sight. Beneath the bones, in raised lettering, is ‘Memento Mori’.



Lying beside the tomb is a trapezoidal coffin lid with a faintly-incised cross with fleur-de-lys terminals. It is pierced by a large rectangular hole. The stone font mentioned above is square with two champfered corners. The possible piscina basin was not noted on this occasion. The inscribed stone at the gateway is now greatly overgrown and the inscription is almost illegible.





Possible piscina basin 1988



Inscribed stone at entrance 1988