43 Church Street, Ballymoney
31 Church Street, Ballymoney
2nd October 2026
35 Church Street, Ballymoney
2nd October 202643 Church Street, Ballymoney
43 Church Street, Ballymoney
Glebe Townland
OS Ref:- 17
OLD GRAVEYARD AND CHURCH TOWER, Church Street
The Old Graveyard is on the site of the oldest Parish Church first recorded in 1306, rebuilt in 1637 funded by Sir Randall MacDonnell, partially destroyed during the Irish Rebellion of 1642, and used until 1782. Today only the red brick tower remains surrounded by over 400 historic headstones, some dating back to 1610. The tower was more recently restored with assistance from the National Lottery Fund.
The original graveyard extended all the way to the new Parish Church built in 1792. In the 1840’s, the new Coleraine – Ballymena road cut through the middle of the graveyard. Headstones were removed and bodies exhumed where the road crossed the burial ground.
The oldest discernible stone belongs to the Camac family (1610). Other graves include those of long-established Ballymoney families: Adams, Galloway, Cameron, Hamilton, Leslie, Moore, Small, Stewart and others. Other notable graves include George Hutchinson, Magistrate who tried United Irishmen in 1798, and Alexander Gamble, a 1798 rebel hanged in the diamond and reinterred in the graveyard about 85 years later.
