Shankill Graveyard is a small, historic cemetery located about 300 yards from the town of Lurgan in Northern Ireland. It’s nestled among housing developments and the railway line that runs from Belfast to Dublin.
While today it may seem unassuming and even neglected, the graveyard’s grounds are steeped in centuries of folklore. Once a simple double-ringed fort, the cemetery is believed to date back to the 16th century, and its headstones are carved with ominous imagery typical of that time—angels, skulls, and other symbols of mortality.
In 1848, the Belfast-News Letter published an article on the graveyard referring to it as “disgraceful to a Christian community.” The article reported that half-buried corpses were being exhumed to make space for new occupants. Decades later, another article that was dated 1895 mentioned the discovery of a female child’s body left in the graveyard by grieving parents, an unfortunate byproduct of the harsh realities faced by families too impoverished to afford a proper burial.1
Among these grim tales, however, none is more compelling or mysterious than the story of Margorie McCall, whose grave lies near the Brownlow Mausoleum. Her gravestone bears the strange inscription: “lived once, buried twice.” The legend of Margorie McCall has fascinated visitors for generations, and her story is one that refuses to fade with time.
Margorie McCall was the wife of a local doctor named John McCall, and the couple lived on Church Place in the town. At some point in the first half of the 18th century, Margorie fell ill with a fever that, during those times, spread fear throughout the community. When she succumbed to the illness, her death was met with urgency. Fearing the fever would spread, Margorie was buried quickly in Shankill Graveyard, still wearing her wedding ring—a red ruby.
In one version of Margorie’s story, her friends had tried to remove the ring from her finger before she was buried but they were unsuccessful.2 In another version of the story, a coachman who was assisting with the funeral noticed the valuable ring before the coffin was closed.
Whatever version you believe, it’s claimed that the ring caught someone’s attention, and later that night, they returned under the cloak of darkness to claim it.3 The grave-robber opened up Margorie’s coffin and tried to pry the ring from her finger. When he couldn’t, he used a knife to saw through her finger.
Just as the blade drew blood, something unexpected allegedly happened. Margorie suddenly opened her eyes. She sat upright in her grave, sending the horrified would-be thief fleeing into the night.
According to local legend, Margorie rose from her coffin, still dressed in her burial shroud, and made her way back home to her husband, John. When she arrived, she knocked on her own front door. Inside, her husband John was entertaining guests. As they heard the knock, John joked: “If Margorie were alive, I would swear that was her knock!” When he opened the door and found his wife standing there, very much alive, he fainted from shock.4
After John recovered, he was overjoyed to have his wife back. Some versions of the tale claim that the couple went on to live happily ever after, with Margorie enjoying many more years of life—40 by some accounts, seven by others. They even had at least one child, who later became a clergyman. When Margorie eventually died for real, she was buried once again in the same grave at Shankill.
Today, Margorie’s grave remains a curiosity and her tombstone stands as a testament to the strange circumstances surrounding her supposed resurrection. The original stone, which once bore the dates of both of her interments, was damaged long ago. However, the inscription on her new marker reads simply: “Margorie McCall – lived once, buried twice.”
While Margorie’s tale may seem far-fetched, the fear of premature burial was very real in centuries past. In a 1997 article in the Sunday Telegraph, journalist Paul Sieveking noted:
“What is true is that premature burial is not unheard of. Maybe conditions can cause a death-like trance: asphyxiation, catalepsy, cerebral anemia, apoplexy, smallpox, cholera, shock, influenza, freezing and being struck by lightning to name a few.”
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