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Nendrum was an early Christian monastery on Mahee
Island in Strangford Lough, just outside the village of Comber [map].
It is Northern Ireland’s best surviving example on a pre-Norman monastery.
Mahee Island is named for the traditional founder of the site, St Mochaoi, a
disciple of St Patrick, who is believed to have established a monastery here in
the 5th century. However, no excavated finds suggest that there was a monastery
here any earlier than the 7th century. From historical sources, the monastery is believed to have continued in operation until sometime between 974 and 1178. Sometime after 1177, John de Courcy
established a Benedictine
monastery here as a daughter house of St Bees in Cumbria, though this
does not appear to have endured and prospered. The church on
the site continued to function as the local parish church until its final
abandonment in the 15th century. The site was effectively lost until 1844, when
it was rediscovered by the bishop and antiquarian William Reeves.
He set about finding the physical locations of all the ecclesiastical foundations
listed in the 1306 taxation. At Nendrum he was shown what was described to him
as a ‘lime kiln’, but recognised it as the remains of the Round Tower. At this
time the site was heavily overgrown and it was not possible to gain an
appreciation of its full extent. Nendrum remained in pretty much this condition
until H. C. Lawlor, in partnership with the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, directed large-scale excavations and restoration of the
site from 1922 to 1924. Unfortunately, both the excavations and the
restorations were poorly conducted and recorded, and it remains difficult to disentangle the
story of the site from the available records.
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| The exterior face of the (heavily restored) middle enclosure |
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| The church and the Round Tower |
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| The (reconstructed) sundial |
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| Chapple Minor attempts to fly off the Round Tower |
The site as it stands today is composed of three
concentric dry stone enclosures, though the outermost is difficult to follow in
parts. The innermost enclosure contains the remains of a small church, a
decorated sundial, the stump of a round tower, and a ‘monk’s graveyard.’ The middle
enclosure contains a number of platforms for huts and workshops, and the
outermost enclosure contain a large cereal-drying kiln. Lawlor’s excavations
showed that at least one of the huts in the middle enclosure was used as a
bronze smithy during the life of the monastery. Close by these workshops is a
structure interpreted by Lawlor as a school, based on the recovery of iron styli (or styluses, if you prefer) and
trial pieces. Excavation demonstrated that it had a wood and thatch
roof and had been burnt down. The small church was constructed in two periods. The
western portion of the structure with projecting antae may be of 10th to 11th
century date, while the eastern extension and a small annexe to the north are
related to the later Benedictine presence here. Near the church, to the
south-east, is an area where Lawlor discovered a number of what appeared to be
hastily-buried bodies, presumably the human cost of some catastrophe. The
sundial dates to the beginning of the 10th century and was among the collection
of carved and decorated stone recovered during Lawlor’s excavation. In the late
1990s excavations by Tom
McErlean and Norman Crothers
adjacent to the monastic site found remarkably well preserved remains of an
Early Christian tidal mill [see ‘Suggested Reading’ below and a synopsis: here].
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| The cereal drying kiln inside the outer enclosure |
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| The excavated foundation platforms for the school, workshop, etc. |
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| Original western entrance to the inner enclosure |
Finds from the site included the styli and
trial pieces mentioned above. The excavation also recovered a remarkably wide
variety of finds from the site, including metal knives and nails, along with
pottery and other domestic artefacts. Metal working crucibles and moulds were
recovered from the workshops area, along with items of personal ornamentation,
including brooches and pins. However, the most important single find from the
excavations is the bronze-coated iron bell discovered near the outer enclosure
wall. Such an item would have had the practical use of calling the faithful to
prayer, but was also a potent symbol of the Abbot's power and authority. The
artefacts from Lawlor’s series of excavations are held by the Ulster Museum [Website | Facebook | Twitter], though not all are on
display.
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| Overview of the 'monk's graveyard' to the west of the church |
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| Detail of one of the stone-built, lintelled graves |
The excavation also produced a corpus of 15 cross-inscribed stones. To
secure them against theft, Lawlor had them built into the west wall of the
church. However, by the mid-1980s they appeared to be deteriorating, due to the
effects of weathering and were moved indoors to the adjacent Visitor Centre. Of
the various forms of cross represented within the collection, none are of the
'classic' ringed or 'Celtic'
cross type. This has led researchers to argue that they date to the 7th and
8th centuries, before the adoption of the ringed form. Not only is this the
largest group of monastic crosses from Northern Ireland, it also represents
some of the earliest carved crosses in Ireland. In terms of function, they are
thought to have been used as simple grave markers for deceased monks. Within
this group are eight examples of what is known as 'The Nendrum Cross'. This is
an outline Latin cross
with hollows at the intersections between the arms and the shaft (or
'armpits'). Cross-slabs of this type are known from other ecclesiastical sites
in Co. Down, but they are all thought to have been manufactured at Nendrum.
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| Panoramic overview across the inner enclosure, showing the church and the round tower |
It is this collection of carved stones, now in the
Visitor Centre, that I first want to bring to the reader’s attention. For all their
apparent simplicity, they are extraordinarily beautiful and of the highest
importance for our understanding of both the development of both burial markers
and the monastic cross forms. I have included a set of annotated photographs at the end of this post that include the crosses and other stone artefacts on display.
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| View of the Early Christian tidal mills from the monastic site |
The second thing I’d like to highlight is the
little Visitor Centre itself. It’s off to the left of the monastery as one enters
from the car park, and is discreetly screened from the majority of the site. So much so that it may
easily be missed by the casual visitor. The central section of the main room is
dominated by a model, under a Perspex dome, of how the site may have looked in
its heyday. The walls have some nice boards with illustrations and short texts
on the history, chronology, and context of the site. An adjacent room has a
focus on water milling and the tidal mill. It’s all lovely and grand, but
hardly anything to get too excited over. What is worthy of mention though is
the attention to detail and just sheer inventiveness that has been lavished on
the children’s play portion of the exhibit. It’s completely tied to the Nendrum
site, so it’s relevant to all they’ve seen about them outside. The little model
of how a water-powered mill grinds corn is simply exceptional and as intriguing
to a small child as this adult! Other child interactive playthings included a
soft-play build-it-yourself monastery, and a more complex 3D jigsaw in wood. If
the NIEA were to make copies of the latter for sale, I’d happily join the queue
to have one!
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| 'The Marigold Stone' is a fragment of an 8th century pillar stone. It is formed of multiple intersecting arcs to form a complex 'marigold' symbol. The symbol is a relatively rare find, but does appear to have definite Christian associations and is known from other ecclesiastical sites. |
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| Incised cross with forked terminals |
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| A very simple, incised cross |
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Outline Latin cross with hollows at the
intersections of the cross-bar and the shaft, known
as 'The Nendrum cross form' |
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| Stone mould, possibly for a lamp |
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| Example of 'The Nendrum Cross' form |
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| Example of 'The Nendrum Cross' form |
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| Example of 'The Nendrum Cross' form |
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| Example of 'The Nendrum Cross' form |
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| Upper millstone (made of Mourn granite) from Mill 2, dated to 789AD |
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| Fantastic model of the milling process |
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| Nendrum 3D jigsaw! I want one! |
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Nendrum soft-play monastery ...
absolutely brilliant! |
Gail Matthews' 1995 undergraduate dissertation Nendrum Rediscovered is available as
part of the publicly accessible SM7 file from the NIEA: here.
Virtual Tour of the site available: here.
The NIEA guide card for the site is available as a
PDF: here.
Lawlor, H. C. 1925 The monastery of Saint Mochaoi of Nendrum.
Belfast.
McErlean, T. &
Crothers, N. 2007 Harnessing the tides:
the Early Medieval tide mills at Nendrum Monastery, Strangford Lough. Northern
Ireland Archaeological Monographs No 7. Belfast.
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