Inch Abbey

Inch Abbey (Irish: Mainistir na hInse; Ulster-Scots: Änch Abbey) is a large, ruined monastic site 0.75 miles (1.2 km) north-west of Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland, on the north bank of the River Quoile in a hollow between two drumlins and featuring early Gothic architecture. The site is mostly in State Care and is at grid ref: J477455, off the main road to Belfast.

The site was originally on an island (Irish: Inis) in the Quoile Marshes. The pre-Norman Celtic monastic settlement here, known as Inis Cumhscraigh (or Inis Cuscraidh), was in existence by the year 800. In 1002 it was plundered by the Vikings led by Sitric, King of the Danes, who came up the Quoile with a fleet from the sea. The Vikings plundered the settlement again in 1149. Its large earthwork enclosure has been traced from aerial photographs. On the ground, the early bank and ditch can be followed along the line of trees on the eastern boundary of the site, and partly along the western boundary. The buildings of the early monastery would have been made of timber.

Inch Abbey was established as a Cistercian house by John de Courcy and his wife Affrica. Inch, or Iniscourcy, was erected as an act of repentance for the destruction of the Abbey at Erinagh (or Erenagh) (3 miles (4.8 km) to the south) by de Courcy in 1177. It was colonised directly by monks from Furness Abbey in Lancashire in 1180, along with some of the monks from Erinagh. The Cistercian monastery was located near to the river in the southern area of the Early Christian earthwork enclosure.

The Cistercian precinct was enclosed by a bank and ditch extending north and south from the parish graveyard to the river and east to west up the valley sides. The buildings are mainly of the late 12th century and the 13th century. The church (length 170 ft) was built about 1200, in the Cistercian cruciform plan with a low tower at the crossing, an aisled nave to the west and two projecting transepts (each 27 ft (8.2 m) square) each with a pair of chapels. Only the impressive east window remains. The chancel wall has three well proportioned pointed windows, the middle one being 23 ft (7.0 m) high. The chancel was 42 ft (13 m) by 27 ft. There was an altar in each of the rib-vaulted transept chapels and in the north transept is a door out to the monk's cemetery (no longer visible) and a tower with broken stairs in the north-west angle. On the stone plinth of the north transept's exterior north wall a number of incised symbols can be seen which are mason's marks. The high altar was under the east windows and in the south wall are the remains of triple sedilia (seats for the priests) and a piscina for washing the altar vessels.

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