Balmoral Cemetery

Balmoral Cemetery location and opening hours

Address

Stockman’s Lane
Belfast 
BT9 7JA 

Enter from Stockman's Lane, just off Lisburn Road.

Balmoral Cemetery opening hours

The cemetery is currently closed to the public. If you have a query about our cemeteries, contact our Bereavement Services Office on 028 9027 0296 or email cemeteries@belfastcity.gov.uk.

How to get to the cemetery

Take Metro 9 A-C, 90 or 92 from Belfast city centre. There is no car parking available at the cemetery.

Cemetery accessibility

The cemetery contains level ground throughout for those with disabilities.

About the cemetery

Balmoral Cemetery, located in south Belfast, opened to the public in 1855. The graveyard, originally known as Belfast Cemetery, Malone, became public property in 1953. Although burials no longer take place in the cemetery, the historical site can be opened for visitors. 

History

Balmoral Cemetery opened in 1855 after Reverend Henry Cooke and Reverend Joseph Mackenzie of Malone were refused permission to carry out a ‘proper’ Presbyterian funeral in another churchyard. The pair decided to set up their own burial ground on land belonging to Reverend Mackenzie, beside Stockman’s Lane. 

The new cemetery was controlled by a board of trustees which included three Presbyterian ministers. Burials were mostly of subscribing and non-subscribing Presbyterians but the graveyard was also used by other denominations. 

By the 1920s, the site had fallen into disrepair and, in 1953, it was taken over by Belfast Corporation (now the council).

Famous burials

Amongst those buried in Balmoral Cemetery are:

• Reverend Joseph Mackenzie (1811-1883) - co-founder of the site
• Reverend Henry Cooke (1788-1868) - co-founder of the site. Cooke was a prominent Presbyterian noted for his conservative views. His funeral was described as being 'probably the largest ever to take place in Belfast' at the time. A statue of Cooke, known locally as the Black Man, was erected in College Square East in 1876
• Dr Wilberforce Arnold (1838-1891) - founder of the Presbyterian Orphan Society
• William Batt (1840-1910) - architect who designed the front gate lodge for Botanic Garden.