Belfast, Co. Antrim (2019-09-28)

Today is Saturday, and time to get a little exercise, as we have got a little lax since arriving in Belfast.

Our first destination was the ancient Knock burying ground, where I believe my great great great O’Neill grandparents are buried....I have a copy of the headstone details, but wanted to get a photo of the stone, if it is in good condition.  To get there we took a bus most of the way, then walked along the A55 highway (risking our lives to cross the road), before walking down a short street to the gates of the cemetery.  But when we got to the cemetery gates, we found them securely locked (who has ever heard of a cemetery closed on Saturday?)....strike one!  Peering through the bars of the gate, it was obvious that the cemetery is not maintained, and if we had got in, we would have been lucky to find the stone, let alone read it.

Knock Cemetery

The next target was the Knockbreda cemetery, on Church Road, Castlereagh, in search of the final resting place of the nemesis of my great great Cosgrave grandfather, the one who challenged Alexander Findlay in the Court of Chancery, lost, declared bankruptcy and emigrated to New Zealand (but that is another story).  Google Maps said that we could walk there in 37 minutes so off we went, back across the A55, through a residential area, and, once we got to Church Road, up and up and up, until we were high above Belfast, with wonderful views over the city.

Belfast from Church Road

We found a cemetery, at a Presbyterian church, and left no stone unturned, but found no sign of an Alexander Findlay....strike two!  Perhaps, he is in “the other” Knockbreda cemetery, which Google Maps told us was only another 40 minutes walk away.

So off we went again, walking down a major road with a sidewalk, and then onto a narrow road with no sidewalk.  It was so narrow that cars could barely pass one another, and each time one went past we were forced into the blackberry bushes to avoid being run down.  But eventually we came to that other Knockbreda cemetery and began searching for the grave of Alexander Findlay.  We worked our way around the church and had almost gone right around, when we found the headstone (it was hard to miss, being about 8 feet square), which was lucky, because we then noticed that this cemetery had another HUGE section beyond the wall, which would have taken hours to search through.

Headstone of Alexander Findlay

Pleased that our search was not a total waste of time, we adjourned to a nearby mall for lunch and to plan strategy for the next phase of today’s adventure, returning to the location which the Cosgrave family farmed from 1770 until the 1850s.  I already knew roughly where it was, but armed with new information from a map found at PRONI, I wanted to confirm exactly where it was.

Google Maps gave us two choices - take #7 bus into the centre of the city and then #8 bus to Malone, or take #6 bus further out of town, and then walk for 27 minutes.  You can guess which option we chose.  The #6 bus was delayed 15 minutes, but it came eventually and dropped us at the Belvoir Forrest Park.  From here we walked on narrow lanes and public footpaths, across the Lagan canal and Lagan River and onto New Forge Lane.  The farm was around the area where New Forge Lane met Malone Road and Balmoral Avenue, and was 14 acres in size.  The map indicated that the farm was about twice as deep as it was wide, and my calculator told me that 14 acres is 610,000 square feet, so it would have been about 1100 ft deep with a street frontage of about 550 feet (200 paces give or take a bit), with trees along the street frontage.

This area today is comprised of several very large and very fancy looking houses, hidden behind high walls and high gates.  I would not mind owning those 14 acres today.  After pacing out the likely stretch of street, I was able to confirm exactly where the farm would have been, and I hoped that maybe the old farm house had been kept as an implement shed or the like, but alas, despite jumping up to peek over walls and gates, there was no sign of it.  But here we were, walking in an area that my ancestors walked 250 years ago....priceless!

Location of Cosgrave Farm 

Feeling that 15 km was enough walking for the day, we did the #8 bus into town and the #5 bus to our accommodation.  Another successful, but tiring, day.