On the Ards peninsula, in County Down, the Gothic ruins of Grey Abbey rise in a peaceful setting. A medieval Cistercian priory dissolved at the Reformation, it knew a second life thanks to Sir Hugh Montgomery, one of the great Scottish colonisers of the Ards.
A medieval Cistercian priory
Grey Abbey was founded in 1193 by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy, as a Cistercian priory. It was a fine Gothic abbey, one of the first in Ireland to adopt the English style. But, like the other monastic houses, it was dissolved in 1541 at the Henrician Reformation. The Cistercian abbey then ceased to exist, its monks dispersed, its lands confiscated — the common fate of the medieval religious institutions struck by the break with Rome.
The return to service by Montgomery
Grey Abbey's link with our period rests on its reuse by the Scottish colonisation. The estate was granted to Sir Hugh Montgomery, who — with James Hamilton — was one of the two great Scottish colonisers of the Ards peninsula (the 'private colonisation' that preceded the official Plantation). In 1626, Montgomery re-roofed the abbey and returned it to service as a parish church for Protestant worship. Grey Abbey thus illustrates the typical journey of an Ulster religious building: medieval foundation, dissolution at the Reformation, then reappropriation by the Scottish colonists who gave it a new Protestant life. To see: the Cistercian Gothic nave, the west portal, the funerary effigy, the setting of Grey Abbey House park.
Did you know?
The colonisation of the Ards peninsula by Hamilton and Montgomery, from 1606, is sometimes considered the true 'first Plantation' of Ulster — three years earlier than the official Plantation of 1609. These two Scots, by private agreement with an indebted Gaelic chief (Con O'Neill) then with the Crown, brought thousands of Scottish colonists into North Down and the Ards, laying the foundations of the Scottish settlement in Ulster. Grey Abbey re-roofed by Montgomery is one of its monuments.
Notes
Grey Abbey lies at Greyabbey, Ards peninsula, County Down; ruins run by the NI heritage bodies, accessible, in the park of Grey Abbey House. Hours to check.
Quiz
- When was Grey Abbey dissolved?
- In 1541 (Henrician Reformation)
- In 1193
- In 1626
- Who returned it to service in 1626?
- Sir Hugh Montgomery (Scottish planter)
- Henry VIII
- An O'Neill chief
- Montgomery was one of the colonisers of which region?
- The Ards peninsula (with Hamilton)
- Fermanagh
- Tyrone