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Ards

Mahee Island

Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins

Discover

Places to see

United Kingdom

Northern Ireland

Ards

Mahee Island

Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins

Recommended by 10 cyclists out of 11

This Highlight is in a protected area

Please check local regulations for: Strangford & Lecale AONB

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Location: Mahee Island, Ards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

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Top cycling routes to Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins

5.0

(2)

riders

1. Comber to Mahee Island loop — Strangford & Lecale

24.2km

01:25

120m

Easy bike ride. Great for any fitness level. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Easy

2. Nendrum Monastic site loop from Newtownards – Strangford Lough

47.7km

03:26

310m

Intermediate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Intermediate

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3. Whiterock Harbour – Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins loop from Movilla

57.9km

03:27

380m

Intermediate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Intermediate

Tips

sm milligan

August 12, 2023

Love spending time here. There is a park bench to the far east corner, and to the left of that hosts one of the best views of the Lough. When tides out you can see traces of the old Salmon fisheries. Its so quiet, and there is a picnic area just to the side of the visitors centre. The site also boasts fragments of an early Sun Dial that have been placed by the entrance to the Church.

Derek

July 1, 2018

Nendrum (the best example of a pre-Norman monastic site in Northern Ireland) dates back to the 5th Century and also has links to St Patrick.

The monastery consists of three round dry-stone walled enclosures, one within the other. There is an industrial works in the outer enclosure and a church ruin in the central enclosure as well as a round tower and graveyard. The middle enclosure has the remains of huts and workshops.

sm milligan

August 29, 2023

This is the best example in Northern Ireland of a pre Norman ecclesiastical enclosure with its buildings.

Nendrum is associated with St Mochaoi who died at the end of the 5th century, and is linked with St Patrick in a much later source. Notices of Nendrum clergy, including three bishops, begin in the 7th century and the excavation of a sophisticated tide mill on the shore near the site has shown that the mill was active in the early 7th century, which underlines the early importance of Nendrum.

References continue until a fire in 976, perhaps a Viking raid, when the head of the church (erenagh) was burned in his house. In the late 12th century a small Benedictine monastic cell was founded on the site, but by 1302–1306 this was the parish church, abandoned for Tullynakill on the mainland in the 15th century.

H.C. Lawlor excavated the site from 1922 to 1924, when enclosure walls, church and round tower were restored. The glacial hill is crowned with three concentric walled enclosures,

irregularly oval in plan. Little is known of the outer cashel, only partly in state care. In the middle cashel on the south-west side are circular platforms for huts, which excavation suggested were craft workshops, and a rectangular building known as the ‘schoolhouse’, also a workshop. In the inner cashel were the most important buildings, including the church with its graveyard and the base of a round tower north-west of the church.

The west wall of the church was rebuilt in the 1920s, incorporating a reconstructed sundial at the south-west corner. Finds from the 1920s excavation, including the well-known bell of Nendrum, are in the Ulster Museum and Down Museum at Downpatrick.

Underwater archaeological work in the 1990s showed that there is a stone jetty south-east of the enclosure, now inundated in the lough, and medieval pottery was found close by.

( source: department of communities )

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Elevation 10 m

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Today

Saturday 27 September

14°C

8°C

10 %

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Max wind speed: 35.0 km/h

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Location: Mahee Island, Ards, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins

1. Comber to Mahee Island loop — Strangford & Lecale

2. Nendrum Monastic site loop from Newtownards – Strangford Lough

3. Whiterock Harbour – Nendrum Monastic Site Ruins loop from Movilla

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