Antrim and Newtownabbey: new garden of remembrance approved at Sixmile Cemetery
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has approved the development of a Garden of Remembrance at Sixmile Cemetery, Antrim.
A Garden of Remembrance provides a dedicated space for the interment of ashes within a cemetery. This facility is not available in the Antrim area currently but it is provided in council-owned Carnmoney, Mallusk and Ballyclare cemeteries.
There is also a memorial garden with a columbarium, a resting place for ashes, at the council’s crematorium at Doagh Road, Newtownabbey.
The crematorium opened in June 2023 at a cost of £5m. A total of 747 cremations took place during 2023/24 and 1,309 during 2024/25.
Minutes of last month’s Operations Committee said that bereaved families in the Antrim area who wish to inter ashes must purchase a grave plot, which is often “under-utilised” as the deceased’s ashes are “typically interred beneath an existing headstone”.
The report of the discussion behind closed doors indicated that to meet “growing demand”, it was proposed a Garden of Remembrance be developed at Sixmile Cemetery designed to accommodate 160 plots.
It is anticipated the facility would provide families with “a dignified environment for remembrance and reflection while ensuring longterm provision for local residents”.
It was proposed by Antrim Alliance Councillor Neil Kelly, seconded by Antrim Sinn Fein Cllr Lucille O’Hagan, the development of a Garden of Remembrance, at Sixmile Cemetery, be approved.
There are 15 plots remaining in Mallusk’s garden of remembrance, 48 in Carnmoney’s and 115 in Ballyclare’s garden of remembrance.
Meanwhile, the council has indicated five years’ burial capacity remaining in Ballyclare Cemetery; 25 years, in Sixmile and Crumlin Cemeteries and 34 years at Rashee Cemetery, Ballyclare. There are 3,531 plots remaining in Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough overall.
The council is understood to be considering a site in “urban” Newtownabbey for a new cemetery with surveys commissioned to assess ground conditions.
Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter