Spooky Belfast
Friar’s Bush graveyard opens for Halloween tours
THE THOUSANDS WHO WALK PAST THE TALL WALLS of Belfast’s Friar’s Bush graveyard have little inkling of the history – and horror – hidden inside.
“Friar’s Bush is one of the most evocative heritage sites in Belfast and, indeed, the whole of Ireland,” says Dr Eamon Phoenix, who will be leading night-time Halloween tours this month. “It is a deeply atmospheric place around this time of year, when its tall yew trees, its mass famine grave and mysterious Friar’s Stone, eerily lit by fl ickering candle-lanterns, serve as stark reminders of our mortality as well as the tragedies of Irish history.”
The Friar’s Stone in the centre of the site was the secret location for forbidden Catholic masses in the 18th century, and it’s said that in 1720 a friar was captured and hung here, right in the spot he had been preaching. Around a century later, the graveyard was a regular target for ‘resurrection men’ or body snatchers, and in 1823 the stolen bodies of a woman and child were found in a barrel at the docks.
During the Great Famine of the 1840s, Friar’s Bush was also the mass burial site for up to 2,000 victims of hunger and disease, and today a small sign at the ‘Plaguey Pit’ is a grim reminder of the unfortunates – many of them unidentified – who rest there. There are tales of local servant girls too, who, terrified of scandal, threw their babies – alive and dead – over the wall.
Thankfully, you’re unlikely to come across the unburied corpses during the Belfast Halloween Tour. Yet, visitors with a taste for local history should sign up, as Dr Phoenix offers a rewarding account of the bloody history of Friar’s Bush.
James Bartlett Tours run 17 October to 1 November (except Sundays), £18 adult/£8 child, www.belfastcitysightseeing.com
