The old cemetery at Kilbride stands beside the modern day Presbyterian church outside the small village of Doagh in County Antrim. The graveyard is perhaps best known for the wonderful Stephenson Mausoleum, built in 1837, inspired by Indian architecture and unique in Northern Ireland. The tomb was built to commemorate four doctors and surgeons from the Stephenson family, one of whom, Samuel Martin Stephenson who died in 1843, was ‘Superintending Surgeon’ in the Madras Presidency in what is now modern day India. It is said to have been inspired by their travels through India with the bulbous dome, finials and faintly ogee arches all reminiscent of that country. The mausoleum is the final resting place for thirteen members of the Stephenson family. To the rear of the mausoleum lies four graves of the Gault family, one of whom William Gault was a United Irishman and the founder of the first Sunday School in Ireland in 1770. The graveyard has several other attractive grave markings and is well worth a visit if passing through north Antrim.
GPS: 54.75485, -6.06106
Wonderful photography again. Sorry I’m not keeping up with your content as diligently as I should; life is such a slog sometimes. It’s amazing how motivated you are to make time to follow your passion chronicling the history of the island so regularly, got any tips?
Tiege really sorry for my slow reply. My main tip and the way I get to see most of the sites I visit is through a mountain of pin pointed googlemaps, I have one for every county in Ireland and many for other countries with lists of places I plan to visit, I find this makes me most able to get a large amount of sites visited in every trip. I work full time in the homeless sector which can indeed be a slog, so the blog is a welcome rest from that!
Oh no worries, I’m the champion of slow replies – let me apologize for being slow to respond and comment on your own stuff! I’ve been very busy with life :/
Hope it’s a ‘good’ busy Tiege!