Movilla Cemetery

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large cemetery, on the eastern edge of Newtownards, roughly pentagonal in plan and measuring c.320m by c.240m (at its greatest extent).

To the N of the cemetery is the ruins of Movilla abbey, whose N facade forms part of a high rubble wall which faces directly out onto the Movilla Road.

To the E the cemetery is bounded by the old Movilla Road.

The ruin contains the oldest (medieval) gravestones, with others dating from the seventeenth century onwards, in the immediate vicinity of the abbey. Some, not entirely appropriate, fairly recent tombs are sited within the old abbey walls. Amongst the more elaborate tombs is that belonging to the Corry family (to the S of the abbey ruins) which consists of a miniature Greek Doric temple; there is also a large barrel vault of the 1830s belonging to the McFadden family of Newtownards, a short distance SW of the abbey. There are also many (mainly nineteenth century) headstones with Masonic carvings.

Due to the usual wear, grave subsidence and recent storms, many headstones have collapsed, and some are in danger of being reparably damaged. The southern half of the cemetery generally contains the more recent graves and appears to have been formally laid out. At the main eastern entrance is a small picturesque cemetery lodge, built in c.1876, presumably as the caretaker’s residence.

See also refs. HB24/08/003, /005 & /006.

Historical information

The now ruined church of Movilla, around which this cemetery is ‘centred’ is said to have been founded by St. Finian in 540. The church was raided by the Norse 824, but recovered and remained in use up until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Before c.1850 the graveyard was situated on the north side of the Movilla Road, but by 1858 the road had been redirected along the north face of the ruin. In 1876 the cemetery was taken over by the Newtownards Burial Board and it is now under the care of Ards Borough Council.

The cemetery contains over 200 gravestones dating from before 1800 and 750 from between 1800 and 1864. The oldest stone outside of the church dates from 1632. There are some graves belonging to persons who died as a result of the events of 1798, including those of Archibald Warwick and Robert Robinson; the cemetery itself was used as the meeting point for the insurgents, before they marched to attack Newtownards market house on 10 June 1798.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Edition, 1834, Down 6.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/34 1st valuation, Newtownards, c.1835.
3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, 1860, Down 6.
4 PRONI 2nd valuation, Newtownards, c.1861.

Secondary sources
1 'Archaeological Survey of County Down' (Belfast, 1966), pp. 283-84.
2 R.S.J. Clarke (compiler) 'Gravestone Inscriptions Vol.11 County Down, Barony of Ards' (U.H.F. Belfast 1975).
3 Bill Wilsdon 'The Sites of the 1798 Rising in Antrim and Down' (Belfast 1997), pp.132-34.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Burial ground on the eastern outskirts of Newtownards containing the ruins of a medieval abbey with medieval grave slabs. The headstones in the immediate vicinity of the ruins date from the seventeenth century onwards, with some elaborate tombs of the 1800s, including the Corry family ‘Greek temple’ grave.