Bonamargy Franciscan Friary, Co Antrim

Bonamargy Friary D126408)may have been founded about 1500 by Rory MacQuillan for the Third Order of St Francis. There have been suggestions that the foundation may have been as early as 1475 or as late as 1512. In the latter case the founders may have been the MacDonnells of Antrim. The date of the dissolution of the friary is not recorded but it was probably sometime in the 1530s. It was burned in 1584 during an attack by the MacDonnells and Scots on English troops who were quartered there but the buildings were repaired and in use until 1642. During this time the Franciscans remained associated with the buildings which passed from the Third Order to the First Order in 1626. It became a rest centre for Irish Franciscan missionaries to Scotland. At the Franciscan chapter at Ross in 1687 it was decided to establish a residence at Bonamargy and to petition Rome for permission to erect a canonical foundation.

View From The East

The buildings are approached through a gatehouse set in an earth bank. The long narrow church has three windows and a door in the S wall and an east window with broken tracery and decorated label stops.

Detail Of The East Window

The cloister lay to the north of the church and in the east range was the sacristy and a day room for indoor work. Above this was the friars’ dormitory. The 17th century vault running S from the church is the burial place of the MacDonnells, Earls of Antrim.

The Grave Of The Black Nun

At the west end of the church is a small holed cross. It is said to mark the grave of the Black Nun, Julia MacQuillan, a recluse who lived here in the 17th century. She wished that, when she died, her grave would be positioned so that people would walk over it.