Nendrum Castle

Nendrum
Early Christian Monastic Site

Nendrum Monastery is situated on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough approached along narrow, twisting manes and causeways signposted off the A22 immediately South of Comber.

Nendrum was an island monastery, traditionally founded in the 5th Century by St. Machaoi. A small Benedictine cell was founded here in the late 12th Century. It was a parish church in 1306, but abandoned during the 15th Century for Tullynakill Church which you can also visit.

Nendrum is one of the best examples of an Early Christian Irish Monastery to understand because of the early use of stone and the extensive excavations carried out in the 1920's and more recently. Within three concentric dry-stoned walled enclosures the central enclosure has a church ruin with a sun-dial, remains of a round tower and graveyard. The middle enclosure contains remains of huts and workshops and the outer enclosure, fields. Recent work on the shore has discovered a pier and a tidal mill.

Photographer: Irishphotographer Kim Shatwell

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