12/06/2026
Another day out and about on the graveyard trail! 🪦
The ruins of Layd Church, near Cushendall, are said to be haunted by the ghosts of two suicidal lovers, buried in unconsecrated ground near the entrance.
There are mass graves containing sailors, medieval plague victims and slain clansmen. But the most notable interment is probably chloroform enthusiast and authority on drowning James MacDonnell.
Nothing sinister - he was a doctor (who would often experiment on himself) and co-founder of the Royal Victoria Hospital, as well as the Linen Hall Library and Inst. He earnt that enormous Celtic cross.
Then it was on to Killycrappin, near Carnlough, on the slopes of Nappan Mountain, one of several locations that claim to have been home to the last wolf in Ireland.
Killycrappin has been described as ‘the wildest place in the country’, and the old burial ground lives up to that.
It’s been raised over the centuries with layers of forgotten dead and is completely overgrown. Lurking within is the foreboding, iron-railed underground vault of eccentric engineer Francis Turnly, the man who gave us Cushendall’s Curfew Tower and parts of the Causeway Coast Road.
Good luck locating Killycrappin, even with maps. But sure, ain’t that half the fun?
