The story of Layd Old Church
Layd was a place of worship long before the building you see today. It appears in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas of 1291 to 1292, confirming its use as a parish church, and it may pre-date the earliest Franciscan foundations even though it is often described as a 13th-century Franciscan site. It served as a parish church from around 1306 to the late 1700s, and was likely abandoned as a monastery during the Dissolution of the Monasteries around 1536 to 1540.
The church was rebuilt more than once in local red sandstone. The McArthur family served as curates here across three generations between roughly 1696 and 1796, often preaching in Irish. The building was finally abandoned as a church around 1800, but the graveyard stayed in use, which is why so much of what you walk among today is its dense collection of headstones.
Layd's fame rests on the MacDonnells of the Glens, the powerful Scottish-descended clan who shaped Antrim and Irish politics through the 1500s and 1600s. After their earlier burial ground at Bonamargy near Ballycastle, Layd became their chief burial place, and several MacDonnell graves remain on the site, including a carved Celtic cross whose own history runs through a 19th-century McDonnell farm at Lignamonagh before it was returned here.
The most striking memorial marks Dr James MacDonnell (1763 to 1845), known as a father of Belfast medicine. He helped found institutions that grew into the Royal Victoria Hospital and was connected to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, moving in the same circles as the United Irishmen. His tall Celtic cross is the headstone most visitors come to find.