Nendrum Monastery: An Early Christian Monastic Site in the United Kingdom
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Celtic
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Fortified Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Nendrum Monastery is a Christian monastic site on Mahee Island in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. An early Irish Christian community traditionally founded it in the early fifth century, and the monastery later became associated with the see of Down, the administrative district of a bishop.
Early Christian foundation
Tradition attributes Nendrum’s foundation to Mochaoi, whose proper name was Caolán. St Patrick, the fifth-century Christian missionary traditionally credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, is said to have appointed him. Mahee Island itself is traditionally named after the saint. Historical forms of the monastery’s name include Oendruim, Aonagh-urmuman, Oinach-urmuman, Nenddrum, Noindrum, and Noendoma. Although the traditional foundation date is in the early fifth century, a later date has also been proposed.
Annals place the death of St Mochaoi of Nendrum at various dates between 490 and 497. Nendrum may have served as an episcopal seat at an early stage. The Annals of Tigernach and the Annals of Ulster describe Cronan, who died around 640, as the bishop of Nendrum. These references place the monastery within the early medieval Christian traditions of Ireland and Britain known as Celtic monasticism.
Medieval transformations
Medieval records mention Nendrum from the seventh century until the late tenth century. They describe Sedna Ua Demain, abbot of Nendrum, as being consumed in his own house, probably during a Viking raid. The attack may have been followed by the pillaging and demolition of the monastery, although the connection between these events remains qualified.
In 1178, John de Courcy, an Anglo-Norman lord active in Ireland during the twelfth century, transferred Nendrum’s property to an English abbey. Benedictine monks, members of the Order of Saint Benedict, then established a small cell or priory on Mahee Island. Nendrum was recorded as a parish church in 1306, and the church remained in parish use until the site was abandoned during the fifteenth century in favour of a new church at Tullynakill.
Rediscovery and investigation
After its abandonment, the location of Nendrum was forgotten. William Reeves, a nineteenth-century Irish ecclesiastical historian and antiquarian, rediscovered it in 1844 while searching for the church mentioned in the 1306 record. He identified the remains of its round tower.
H. C. Lawlor carried out extensive excavations from 1922 to 1924. His work was the first extensive excavation of a large ecclesiastical site of this type. Later investigations took place under A. C. Thomas in 1954, D. Waterman during the 1960s, and N. Brannon in 1979 and 1982. Lawlor’s methods have since been criticized, but Nendrum remains important because it is the only major site of its type to have been examined through published excavation reports. Much of the visible walling was substantially restored during and after the excavations, particularly during Lawlor’s work.
Nendrum is now ecclesiastically part of the United Parish of Killinchy, Kilmood and Tullynakill, whose rector has spiritual responsibility for the ancient site. Open-air services take place in the ruined church, including an annual service after the summer solstice and another on Palm Sunday. In 2017, the site hosted its first christening since the monastery’s dissolution.
Remains
The settlement occupies an earlier rath, an Irish ringfort or enclosed settlement, and is organized around three irregularly concentric cashels, which are Irish stone-walled enclosures. These were formed by dry-stone walls, built without mortar, and surround the principal monastic buildings. The central enclosure contains the church, round tower, sundial, and graveyard, while the second enclosure includes a building identified as a monastic school or workshop and further burials. Other parts of the settlement included orchards, gardens, pastures, arable fields, a guest-house, workshops, and areas connected with the shore.
Enclosures and central buildings
Stone enclosures
The three cashels define the settlement’s principal layout. Their irregular rings of dry-stone walling were rebuilt extensively during the twentieth-century excavations, so the visible enclosure walls incorporate substantial restoration. Before work began in the 1920s, the most prominent remains were the base of the round tower and the ruins of the church.
Church and round tower
The ruined church stands within the central cashel beside the remains of the round tower. The central area also contains the graveyard, while the second cashel preserves the school or workshop building and additional burials. Together, these features represent the core of the monastic settlement and its associated burial ground.
Canonical sundial
A canonical sundial, an ecclesiastical sundial used to indicate customary prayer hours, stands at one corner of the ruined church. It was reconstructed from fragments found during the 1924 excavation and dates to about 900. The pillar is approximately 190 centimetres high, 40 centimetres wide, and 15 centimetres thick. Its dial and gnomon, the projecting part that casts the shadow, occupy the top of one face. Because the present pillar is reconstructed, its original height remains uncertain.
Industrial and shoreline features
Tide mill
Nendrum’s tide mill used the rise and fall of the sea to turn a horizontal water wheel. The remains represent an earlier phase dated by dendrochronology, the dating of timber through annual tree-ring patterns, to 619, and a later mill dated to 787. The earlier phase has been described as the oldest excavated tide mill in the world. Its millstones measure about 830 millimetres in diameter, and the horizontal wheel was estimated to produce up to seven-eighths horsepower, approximately 0.65 kilowatts.
Landing place and settlement areas
A landing place outside the enclosure was probably used by fishing boats. The wider settlement also contained cultivated land, gardens, orchards, pastures, a guest-house, workshops, and a school area, showing that the monastery’s physical organization extended beyond the three stone enclosures.
Excavated objects
Slate tablets and bell
Excavation of a rectangular building produced about 30 slate tablets decorated with Celtic designs. These were trial pieces, and they are now held in the Ulster Museum together with a bell and a stone from the site bearing a runic inscription, writing made with early Germanic-style characters. The Nendrum bell is made of iron with a bronze covering and is also preserved in the Ulster Museum.
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