Maghera Church and Round Tower

The ruined round tower marks the site of an early church founded by the 6th-century St Domongart (Donard), after whom the highest peak in the Mourne Mountains is named. The tower stood to its full height until the early 18th century, when it fell in a great storm, and is now a stump 5.4m high. It is built of local granite boulders and shale and has the usual raised doorway, but this is a rough gap, without its dressings. Small scale excavation in 1965 showed evidence of Early Christian activity near the tower. In the oval graveyard east of the parish church is the ruin of the medieval parish church, probably 13th century in date. It has a west door, unblocked during conservation work in the mid 1970s, and a small north window. A feature of the walls is voids left where horizontal intramural timbers have rotted away. At least two pre-Norman cross-carved stones survive in the graveyard. Excavation before the graveyard extension south-west of the present church showed that the site is enclosed within a deep ditch, probably extending to form a large circular enclosure.

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