placenamesKilbride
Cill Bhríde
Kilbride near Arklow contains a family mausoleum whose recorded burials and later folklore tell different stories.
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 Bhríde · Irish · main form
- Kilbride · English · main form
Place & story
Ralph Howard’s pyramid
Ralph Howard of Shelton Abbey commissioned a pyramid mausoleum at Kilbride in 1785. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage's account attributes its design to Simon Vierpyl, while noting that the surviving building account does not name him. The monument stands beside the ruined medieval church. Its commemorative inscription recalls Dorothea Howard, who died in 1684, and identifies the new structure as a family burial place. [2]
A chamber within granite walls
A short passage inside the granite pyramid leads to a chamber with a domed brick roof and thirty-three coffin niches. Eighteen are recorded as occupied. Ralph Howard's daughter Isabella, who died aged nineteen in December 1784, was the first person interred. The heritage account infers that she was initially buried elsewhere in the graveyard and transferred after the mausoleum's completion. [2]
The story of the crying child
The same account distinguishes the last recorded interment, in 1823, from a later burial tradition. In that story, neighbours heard an infant crying after its burial in the pyramid. The sounds supposedly ended when the body was moved elsewhere. No individual storyteller is identified; this is an attested local tradition, rather than a documented additional burial. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilbride. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Howard Mausoleum, Kilbride: Building of the Month,April2013 · Jim Rees; National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.