old abbey

Shortly after the Norman invasion, about 1206, a hospital for the sick and infirm was founded here by Ursus de Swemele and his wife Christina, the care of the hospital being put in charge of a religious community. By the end of the 13th century, it was taken over by the Augustinians or Crutched Friars, and the subsequent history of the Abbey was an uneventful one. After a period of decline it was reformed by the Observantines in 1519.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, after the Reformation, the Abbey was surrendered in 1543 by the last Prior, Richard Malone. The Corporation subsequently disposed of the monastic property by leases, which accounts for the amount of commercial building in the Abbey precincts, in fact the window of one small house is actually built through one of the walls of the west end. All that remains of this once extensive Abbey is the central belfry tower, surmounting a Gothic archway, with another fragment supported on a similar arch to the east, and a piece of gable wall to the west.

Narrow West street formerly extended to the Westgate and is possibly the same width as the original entrance pass by this route. Old Abbey Lane opposite the Garda Barracks leads ot Drogheda's oldest monastic site, St. Mary's Priory or the Old abbey.