Ringhaddy Church ruin

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Rubble remains of a church of possible late medieval origin, associated with a near by tower house. The ruins are located on a top of a rise (and apparently within a circular earthwork) to the S of Castle island, off the W coast of Strangford Lough, c.3 miles SW of Killinchy.

The ruins are rectangular in plan measuring c.14m x 8m externally, with walls roughly a metre thick. The building was gabled and substantial portions of the rubble walling remains with openings to the N, S and E walls. The E gable appears to have had a large window and there are what appear to be entrances to the W sides of the N and S walls. The walls are now overgrown in places and there is a fence around the ruin.

SM Down 17:16.

Historical information

This church may date from the late medieval period and was probably associated with the near by Ringhaddy Castle, itself dating originally from the 1400s (but partly rebuilt in c.1600) and believed to have been built by the Savages of The Ards. Like many other small rural churches, the building was probably gradually abandoned during the later 16th and early 17th centuries. The OS Memoirs of 1833 commented that little of the locals knew anything of the former church ‘nor is there any tradition existing respecting it’. The ruins are now in state care.

References- Primary sources
1 QUB Calendar of State Papers Ireland, 1601-3, p.319, 502.
2 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.89.

Secondary sources
1 ‘Archaeological Survey of Co. Down’ (HMSO Belfast 1966), p.248-50, 309.
2 EHS SM Down 17:16.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Rubble ruins of a small church possibly dating from the 15th century and probably once associated with the near by tower house.