placenamesKilroot
Cill Ruaidh
Excavation beside the graveyard revealed successive uses of the same ground.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Cill Ruaidh · Irish · main form
- Kilroot · English · main form
Place & story
A wall collapse and an excavation
After the graveyard’s southern retaining wall collapsed in November 2002, archaeologists investigated the replacement wall’s foundations. Work between November 2003 and January 2004 uncovered several garden phases, including possible tree-planting pits and a gravel path. The final garden layout appeared on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. [2]
The earlier cemetery
Beneath the garden lay a cemetery containing adults, children and infants. Many bodies appeared to have been wrapped in shrouds. Pottery and burial practices led the excavators to suggest a medieval date, while acknowledging that precise dating remained difficult. The medieval church shown on the 1857 map was no longer visible. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilroot. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- 2003:0017 — Kilroot: The Bishop’s Palace, excavation report · Finbar McCormick and Philip Macdonald, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University Belfast
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.