franciscan friary

The ruins of the Franciscan friary founded by Archbishop Patrick Scannail in 1263-64. The surviving walls are those of the long nave-and-chancel church, into the centre of which a tower was inserted in the 15th century. Near the eastern end is a rare extant example of a medieval altar, and remnants of the south aisle are still visible at the western end of the nave. Nothing remains of the cloister which lay to the north of the church. After the friary was dissolved in 1542, the doors and windows were blocked up and soldiers took the place of the friars. Shane O'Neill burned the buildings in 1561, an act repeated by Hugh O'Neill in 1593. further destruction was wrought in 1765 when stone was quarried from the walls to be used as building material elsewhere, leaving the church the open shell which we see today.