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Introduction The town of Carlingford is situated on the sea lough of the same name between counties Louth and Down. Although there is evidence of earlier occupation, the town is associated with the Vikings. The name is derived from the Irish and Norse languages, being a combination of Cairlinn (Irish) and fjord (Norse). The present town, however, owes its origins to the Normans, who arrived here in the twelfth century. Hugh de Lacy is credited with building the castle that overlooks the town and its harbour (traditionally called King John’s Castle after he visited Carlingford in 1210). The present-day Trinity Visitor Centre, formerly the Holy Trinity Church of Ireland church, has evidence of medieval construction, and the town consisted of a linear development between it and the castle. The urban medieval outline can still be appreciated today, reinforced by the survival of a tholsel (gatehouse), three tower-houses (known as the Mint, Taaffe’s Castle and the Watch House) and the remnants of a town wall. The town of Carlingford was an outpost of English settlement in Ireland and for a period was the northern limit of the Pale (the area of Ireland under English control). It thrived as a port in the Middle Ages but had declined by the eighteenth century, thanks to the ravages of war and the rise of the town of Newry, Co. Down, as a port and commercial centre. Above: Image extracted from Robert O'Callaghan Newenham's Picturesque views of the antiquities of Ireland.Drawn on stone by J.D.Harding,from the sketches of R.O'C.Newenham (London, 1830), vol. 1, p. 185. Above right: Part of Down Survey map of 'barony of Dundalke', c. 1657 (in private ownership). History Carlingford Priory, popularly referred to as an abbey, is said to owe its origins to Richard de Burgo, who in 1305 invited the Dominican Order to establish a priory in the town. The Irish Historic Towns Atlas records, however, that the Dominican priory was endowed by the merchants of Carlingford in 1352. The priory, dedicated to St Malachy, was established along the general plans for such institutions across Europe: a church, a cloister and domestic buildings such as dormitories, kitchen and refectory. It is likely that the nearby watermill (in ruins) to the east and the mill-race that flows alongside the priory also date from this period. Originally the priory was situated inside the town’s precincts; later, however, the town’s defences were moved inward as its population shrank in the wake of the Black Death, leaving the priory outside the town. As a result of the constant warfare on the frontiers of Ulster, the buildings were fortified with battlements in 1423. In 1540, after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, Carlingford Priory was officially dissolved. A survey conducted at that time described the priory as a ‘strong mansion in need of no expenditure on repairs’ and on ‘every side strongly fortified’, with seven tenements on the site.
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It is likely that the priory was further fortified when Carlingford was granted to Nicholas Bagenal in 1552, along with Newry and various other lands in the area. In a petition to Queen Elizabeth I in 1570 Bagenal, who was marshal of the queen’s army in Ireland, says that he built a castle at Carlingford. The castle referred to may be the eastern part of the surviving domestic range, which in all likelihood was built as a towerhouse. Whatever the case, after the defeat of the Irish in the Nine Years War (1593–1603) it would appear that the priory was no longer of military value. By 1613 the Franciscans, who were at the forefront of the Counter-Reformation surge in Ireland, had occupied the building. The town was the scene of battle in the Cromwellian war and during recent conservation work a cannon-ball was found on the battlements of the priory. Under Charles II there was a relaxation of the laws restricting the practice of Catholicism and the Dominicans reappeared in Carlingford. In the 1670s they attempted to reclaim ownership of the priory from the Franciscans. The dispute was settled by St Oliver Plunkett, the presiding bishop, in favour of the Franciscans. Under Franciscan control, it became known as a friary, a designation still used by some. Not long after, in 1689, the Jacobite army, under the command of James II’s illegitimate son, the duke of Berwick, in retreat from the forces of William of Orange, set fire to Newry and Carlingford. Extensive damage was done to the town and presumably the priory, since a visitor in 1703 described it as being an old chapel and monastery in ruins. Over the subsequent decades it was utilised for a number of purposes, including as housing for local herring fishermen. We are told that in 1726 it was defaced by Mr William Stannus, who presumably used some of the masonry in the nearby Ghan House, which he was constructing as his family home at the time. In the nineteenth century the ruins were used as a handball court. Despite its physical deterioration, the priory remained an important symbol of Carlingford and its ruins continued to be represented on maps and to be the subject of paintings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chancel What remains today of the original priory is the shell of the nave and chancel divided by a tower, with ruins of domestic buildings approximately 20m to the south. These would have been the Above left: Map of medieval Carlingford, showing the principal sites. The Dominican priory lies to the south of the town defences (Urban Archaeological Survey). Above right: Plan of Carlingford Dominican priory (from Urban Archaeological Survey, after Beth Cassidy). Above: Dramatic view of the church overlooked by Slieve Foy, the highest peak in the Carlingford Mountains (Chris Corlett).

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Introduction The town of Carlingford is situated on the sea lough of the same name between counties Louth and Down. Although there is evidence of earlier occupation, the town is associated with the Vikings. The name is derived from the Irish and Norse languages, being a combination of Cairlinn (Irish) and fjord (Norse). The present town, however, owes its origins to the Normans, who arrived here in the twelfth century. Hugh de Lacy is credited with building the castle that overlooks the town and its harbour (traditionally called King John’s Castle after he visited Carlingford in 1210).

The present-day Trinity Visitor Centre, formerly the Holy Trinity Church of Ireland church, has evidence of medieval construction, and the town consisted of a linear development between it and the castle. The urban medieval outline can still be appreciated today, reinforced by the survival of a tholsel (gatehouse), three tower-houses (known as the Mint, Taaffe’s Castle and the Watch House) and the remnants of a town wall.

The town of Carlingford was an outpost of English settlement in Ireland and for a period was the northern limit of the Pale (the area of Ireland under English control). It thrived as a port in the Middle Ages but had declined by the eighteenth century, thanks to the ravages of war and the rise of the town of Newry, Co. Down, as a port and commercial centre.

Above: Image extracted from Robert O'Callaghan Newenham's Picturesque views of the antiquities of Ireland.Drawn on stone by J.D.Harding,from the sketches of R.O'C.Newenham (London, 1830), vol. 1, p. 185. Above right: Part of Down Survey map of 'barony of Dundalke', c. 1657 (in private ownership).

History Carlingford Priory, popularly referred to as an abbey, is said to owe its origins to Richard de Burgo, who in 1305 invited the Dominican Order to establish a priory in the town. The Irish Historic Towns Atlas records, however, that the Dominican priory was endowed by the merchants of Carlingford in 1352.

The priory, dedicated to St Malachy, was established along the general plans for such institutions across Europe: a church, a cloister and domestic buildings such as dormitories, kitchen and refectory. It is likely that the nearby watermill (in ruins) to the east and the mill-race that flows alongside the priory also date from this period.

Originally the priory was situated inside the town’s precincts; later, however, the town’s defences were moved inward as its population shrank in the wake of the Black Death, leaving the priory outside the town. As a result of the constant warfare on the frontiers of Ulster, the buildings were fortified with battlements in 1423. In 1540, after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, Carlingford Priory was officially dissolved. A survey conducted at that time described the priory as a ‘strong mansion in need of no expenditure on repairs’ and on ‘every side strongly fortified’, with seven tenements on the site.

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