THE ANCIENT FRANCISCAN
Friary of Bun-na-Margie,
BALLYCASTLE,
ON THE NORTH COAST OF ANTRIM
BY
ARDRIGH
Friary of Bun-na-Margie,
BALLYCASTLE,
ON THE NORTH COAST OF ANTRIM
BY
ARDRIGH
BUN-NA-MARGIE has few annals of the past, and its architectural remains are but scant and unimportant when compared with the other great religious houses of the middle ages. Nevertheless, its associations are of deep interest to the surrounding people, whose ancestors mingled in the incidents connected with its history, and now lie buried beneath the shadow of its crumbling walls.
The site of the monastery is in itself one of great beauty and attractiveness, and must have afforded constant delight and satisfaction to the habited occupiers when the friary was in its early glory, as it does still to all who visit its roofless nave and gaze upon its great shattered window.
We can readily picture the friars on a bright Easter morning, trooping out of the beautiful western door of their church after the early service, with the resounding Te Deum and the music of the songs of exultation still ringing in their ears, to gaze up at the great dome of Cnoc-lade clearly cutting into the blue sky, the fleecy clouds chasing each other like lambs across the valley of Glensiesc, with the winding waters of the Margie dancing over their pebbly bed in the sunlight close at hand, the deep pools sheltered by the hazel woods, or the overhanging banks affording ample shelter for the speckled trout which largely supplied the table of these Franciscan brothers.
To the north and the east stretched the long piled-up sand-dunes, against which the great waves of the Atlantic dashed and thundered in the winter's wind, unchecked by the far-away break-water of the rugged island of Rachrai or gently broke in white foam along the pebbly beach in the setting sun of a summer's day.
To the east, Benmore rises from the sea, at first with a stair-like slope, then upright as a pine cleaving the sky, tremendous and ever beautiful, whether in sunshine or shade, calm or storm, its massive brow ever speaking of power and majesty. Nearer at hand, sheltered by the white crescent of Caenbann, nestled the port of MacDonnell's Castle, long known as Margie-town. Here, by the pure stream, religion has left her mark by the hand of the monk.
Such were the surroundings of the friary of Bun-na-Margie, and such they still remain, affording prospects not to be surpassed on our northern coast. But it cannot be said that the advantages of the locality called forth the house. The district around Ballycastle has a history reaching to the earliest eras, deep into the misty past of the mythical age long anterior to Christianity. Had not the children of Uisneach landed in the bay on their fateful return from Glen Etive, and are not their wanderings and the love they bore each other still told in the Antrim glens? When the first stone of the friary was laid, the ramparts of Dun-Rainie, within an arrow-shot, bore evidences of a regal habitation, whilst the great carns on Cnoc-lade spoke of royal graves reddened by the rays of the rising sun and gilded with its setting glory.
The immediate cause of the sacred edifice rearing its many gables on the river's bank is unknown, but doubtless it was founded by some princely clan; for the mediaeval chieftain, whilst fully relying upon the strength of his own right arm, depended also upon the prayers of the religious during life, and more especially the care bestowed upon the dead, when each warrior was laid to rest in his coat of armour, his sword by his side, within the precincts of the choir,—or some fair maid was snatched away in the bloom of youth from the castle's bower, or aged mother who perhaps had seen her many sons borne to their tombs before she had been laid beside her departed lord. Thus it was that every princely house founded at least one monastery, where the rites of religion could be administered with befitting pomp and pageantry, within whose church all the clan could crowd to see the nuptial ceremony, or assemble at the great thanksgiving, when the chief, safely returned from strife laden with the spoils of victory, never forgetting a due and proper offering for the house, implored rest for the souls of his ancestors and those fallen in battle ; or, as was often the case, the piercing caoine of the mourners was heard, as the corpse of the warrior was borne shoulder high by his clansmen and followers along the strand to the abbey's gate, there to be met and received—mangled and pierced as it was—by the men of peace, and borne down the darkened aisle to dirge and funeral chant, amidst the wail¬ing of followers and the muttered vows of revenge.
" Lay their spears and bucklers bright
By the warriors' sides aright;
Lay upon the low grave floor,
'Neath each head, the blue claymore;
Lay the collars, as is meet,
Of their greyhounds at their feet :
In the falcon's jesses throw,
Hook and arrow, line and bow."
Sir S. Ferguson.
All the glamour of these old-time customs has passed away with the extinguished glories of Bun-na-Margie, and the bare walls, once resonant with prayers and psalms, now only re-echo the plaintive notes of the sea lairds as they poise themselves aloft above its deserted cloisters, or the swish of the mower's scythe is heard in the rich meadows where the dead lie thick together, or the cry of the corn-crake resounds through the vaults in the hush of a warm June night. To the antiquary alone remains the duty, in these later days, of gathering up the fragments of the past and piecing them together, so that some image, with many cracks and many defects it may be, can be seen and recorded for the present and future ages.
It is said that the Franciscans founded their first house in Ireland at Youghal about 1224, just at the time when the enthusiasm kindled by the Crusades was at its height throughout the Continent, and when all the religious orders flourished at their best. The followers of St. Assisi were noted for their vows of poverty and charity, and many remarkable legends are recorded of the early members of the Order. As to the exact date of the foundation of the friary we can find no record. By some it is stated that it was founded as early as A.D. 1202 by William de Burgo " To the Honour of God and the Virgin ; " and some credence is given to this by the early seventeenth century inscription on the Antrim vault, " In dei deimatrisque virginis honorem." Whether this is merely the coincidence of the use of a favourite dedication or not we cannot say, but it is recorded in the Monasticon Hibernicum that " about the year 1202 William de Burgh granted the Village of Ardimur, with the Church and all its appurtenances, to Richard, one of the monks of Glastonbury, to found a priory to the honour of God and the Virgin Mary." At this period William de Burgo was earl of Ulster, and nominally had these lands in his possession ; and if he was the first of the sept MacUillin — which, however, is disputed — it would certainly go to explain why this clan always claimed Bun-na-Margie as a foundation of their family. The De Burgos were lords of Connacht, and became entitled to the earldom of Ulster by marriage with De Lacy's daughter. It is told that Richard de Burgo, the red earl, brought the MacUillins from Connacht, and the Bissets from Scotland to keep the O'Neills in check. In later years the MacDonnells claimed these lands by descent from the Bissets and by conquest from the MacUillins, whilst the O'Neills always insisted that they were overlords of the Mac¬Donnells. In a manuscript list of Franciscan monasteries in Ireland, it is recorded that Bun-na-Margie was founded by Ruare MacUillin in the year 1500 ; thus again, although at a different date, its foundation is ascribed to a Mac¬Uillin. No reliable authority has ever given the erection of this Monastery to the MacDonnells, although, as the conquerors and successors of the MacUuillins, they assumed its patronage and made it their burial-place, and with their name it is now chiefly associated.
The general architecture of the ruins bears out its early foundation, probably the fourteenth century, although here and there later features are to be observed ; but before we treat of them more fully, we desire to exhaust as far as possible the historic references to our subject. Of course the fateful year 1537 saw the suppression of this monastery with all the others throughout the kingdom ; but being situated in a remote district, with the lord and the people still favourable to the monastery, it is not to be supposed that suppression meant an immediate expulsion of the monks from its walls, for it is known that they lingered about its aisles for many years afterwards, nor did they finally leave until the MacDonnells had embraced the protestant faith, although during that time their existence had been checkered and filled with much adversity, and their numbers had dwindled to insignificance.
The last great religious ceremony associated with the name of Bun-na-Margie is that recorded in the Spicelegium Ossoriense, when Dr. Bonaventure Magennis, a Francis¬can, confirmed about 700 Highland Scots in the month of October, 1639. The Scottish islanders were refugees from the bitter covenanting persecutions which were com¬menced in that year against the catholics in particular. Amongst them was the laird of Largie (a MacDonnell), who died at Bun-na-Margie and was buried there. So endeared were the old walls to the Scots, that they long-continued to flock in great numbers every year to Ballycastle, during the fair, to visit their kinsmen and to form alliances of a more lasting nature. It must have been a pathetic scene this confirmation of the Highlanders—the big rugged men, with their Gaelic tongue, ancient costume, and fierce weapons, prostrate before the bishop of their old faith, receiving a right that their country had discarded, amidst surroundings that England had decreed idolatrous and profane.
Bishop Magennis sojourned with his relative, Randall, first earl of Antrim, who had before this got into trouble for harbouring " Romish priests." In 1621 he had been summoned to Dublin by the lord deputy, Grandison, to answer such a charge, and lord Antrim appealed to the king, pleading guilty, and receiving the king's pardon, " in respect that he has so ingeniously acknowledged his errors, and faithfully promised not to fall into the like again."
Bun-na-Margie must then have been repaired, for around its walls, from the year 1559, the renowned Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell had fought the MacUillins many times with fateful results to them ; but the great disaster to the Friary occurred in this wise. In January, 1584, the English, under Sir John Perrott, were pressing the Scots very hard on the North coast ; they had taken Dunluce, and were now at Ballycastle. Sir Henry Wallop was cursing his fate in having to land stores from the ships on rafts in Margietown Bay. Captain Carlisle and captain Warren had their men and horses lodged in the church of Bun-na-Margie, with two companies encamped close by, when '' about 11 of the clok the same nyght came certayne troupes of Skottes on foote, and aboute vi horse¬men with them, who had upon their staves wadds lyghted, wherewyth they sodaynly sett the roofe of the churche, being thatched, on fyer. They gave us a brave camisado, and entered our campe. The alarme being geven, I came forth in my shert, and at our first encounter, my men answeringe with mee verie gallantlie, we put them off the ground, where the left one of their men that was emongst them of greate accompte ; he was Sorlles gydon. They would fayne have had him away, but they were so plyed with shotte that they left him and the field also, and fell to ronnynge away ; where our horsemen might have done good servis, they were so pestered in the churche that they could not get forthe theire horses in time to doo anythinge, and yet the skermish contynued three quarters of an owre. Ther wer bornt in the church seven horses and seven hackneys. I had slayne my sergeant and one armed man, William Jones. Captain Carleille had one killed and eight hurte, and I had twelve choys men hurte and myself with arrows in the raynes of my bak as I called forward my men in the arme and in the flanke and through the thigh, of which wounds I am verie sore, although I trust in God I shall recover it."
Sir John Perrott, lord deputy of Ireland, writing in the same year, 1584, to Sir Francis Walsingham, the English secretary of state, says : " For a token I have sent you Holy Columcill's crosse—a god of great veneration with Surely Boy and all Ulster ; for so great was his grace, as happy he thought himself that coulde gett a kisse of the said crosse. I send him unto you that when you have made some sacrifice to him according to the disposition you beare to idolatrie, you maie, if you please, bestowe him upon my good lady Walsingham or my lady Sidney to weare as a Jewell of weight and bignesse, and not of prise and goodness, upon some solempne feastc or triumph daie at the courte." The lord deputy had just gone to Ulster against Somhairle Buidhe, and Saint Columcille's cross was part of the spoil he had carried away. This valuable relic was long preserved on Torah Island, but how it came into possession of the MacDonnells is unrecorded. The date of this letter corresponds with the time the English held Bun-na-Margie ; the relics and valuables of the house must have fallen into their hands, and this would explain how the cross came into the pos¬session of Perrott to be bestowed "upon my good lady Walsingham." If it had been in the private possession of Somhairle Buidhe, or even in his castle, it would have been carefully preserved ; but the capture of the monastery was unexpected, and so the cross came as a spoil to the English. Its existence is now uncertain : perhaps it may still be preserved unknown, in a cabinet of some ducal house : or, alas ! its jewels may have been taken from its case to form a newer fashion in ladies' trinkets, and the remainder cast aside as worthless.
In the despatch of captain Warren more detail con¬cerning the injury to the men is given than the damage done to the monastery. The incident, however, dates the destruction of the church, and doubtless the domestic buildings also, for the fire must have been great when the horses were destroyed that had been stabled within its walls. The confirmation of the Highlanders took place in Bun-na-Margie, which had then been repaired and the beautiful east window added, and not at the locus refugii of the monks in Ardagh at the top of Glensiesc, where they afterwards lingered when the friary had been taken from them and their religion pro¬scribed. Here they found a temporary home, with others of their order, when the roofs had disappeared from the walls they loved so dearly, and their most sacred spots desecrated, their altars cast down, and the graves and monuments of the illustrious dead levelled with the ground. With what sad eyes and lingering looks they must have beheld their venerated house, as they hurried to and fro from their secret haunt in the vale of Glensiesc to the little harbour at Margietown, as they took ship to the securer isles of the Western Hebrides, or sailed away to the sunny land of France, to the vine-clad houses of their brethren by the banks of the Rhone and the Loire. Times had changed, and no more for them was Bun-na-Margie to be a mother. The deep-sounding breakers on the neighbouring strand were to make midnight music for other ears, and the high-dashing spray on Carrig-Uisneach was to be seen by other eyes ; whilst the lark of the meadow was to sing matins over crumbling walls, and the plaintive notes of the curlew were alone to sound the funeral dirge of those whose souls had crossed the bar.
The community was of the Third Order of Franciscans, but by the decree of the director-general, dated 15th August, 1687, Bun-na-Margie became a monastery of Franciscans Strictioris Observantiae. This was when the few remaining members of the order had gone into their locus refugii in Glensiesc, having joined some Carrick-fergus brethren of the latter order. Guardians were appointed until 1837, but such appointments were only nominal, as any community had long ceased to exist.
Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell, the youngest son of Alexander MacDonnell, was head of the clan during the latter part of the sixteenth century ; but we need not here dwell upon his daring and prowess, save to point out what manner of man he was. He lived to see at least four of his brothers laid to rest in Bun-na-Margie. His wife, Mary O'Neill, daughter of Con, first earl of Tir Eoghain, was buried with her own people at Armagh. By the way, a curious story is told of a monk travelling from the primatial city to Glenarm to beg the body of Seaghan O'Neill, who had been slain at the instigation of the English. " Father," said he, addressing a friar, " I come from our brothers of Armagh to beg the body of Seaghan O'Neill, so that we may bury it beside his ancestors in Armagh." The friar replied, " Have you," said he, " brought with you the remains of James MacDonnell, lord of Antrim and Cantire, who was buried amongst the strangers of Armagh? " The answer was that he had not done so." Then," replied the friar, " whilst you continue to tread on James, lord of Antrim and Cantire, know ye that we here in Glenarm will continue to tread on the dust of the great O'Neill."
This same Seaghan an Diomas had, to weaken the English influence in Ireland and to strengthen his own nation, defeated the MacDonnells with tremendous slaughter at Glentaise, not far from the walls of Bun-na-Margie, and had taken Somhairle Buidhe a prisoner, releasing him two years later at Cushendun, when he was driven to take shelter with that clan. Somhairle Buidhe had driven the English from Carrickfergus—had fought the queen's forces at Newry—had burned in his castle-yard of Dunaneine on the point of his sword the grant of his lands which queen Elizabeth had bestowed upon him, saying what he had won by the sword he did not intend to hold by parchment. The year 1590 saw this chieftain, this the greatest of all the MacDonnells, laid beside the bones of his kindred in the old friary of his ancestors ; but now there are
" No sign to regret thee.
No eye to rain over thee,
No dirge to lament thee,
No friend to deplore thee ! "
J. J. Callanan.
In contrast to his particularly wild and stormy career, Somhairle died in bed in his castle of Dunaneine, over¬looking the Bay of Ballycastle and the Franciscan friary. " The faithful clansmen carried the remains of their brave old chieftain down the slope of the castle-hill, past the harbour where he had so often welcomed his Clandonnell kinsmen to the Antrim shore, and across the ford of the Margie, where the Irish caoine and the Highland caronach mingled in one wild wail for the dead." We can picture such a scene as this, the long wailing crowd descending the castle-crowned cliff with the coffin borne along by stalwart clansmen, and the old friary with tolling bell sadly awaiting the approaching funeral train. Most of Somhairle's children predeceased him, some falling by murder and English treachery. In 1575 the earl of Essex, finding out that the women and children of the MacDonnells had been sent to the island of Rachrai for safety, despatched ships under Norris, who burned and slaughtered all upon the island. The proud English earl thought this a fair return for the defeats inflicted upon him in the open field. The chieftains were laid to rest within the walls of the church, the clansmen in the surrounding graveyard. A few years later saw this burial ground for many seasons as red as a tiled hill-side, with no grass growing there, so numerous were the burials ; and even within recent memory a great pile of bones, collected from the adjoining fields, were heaped against the graveyard wall. They have since, however, received interment.
Sir Randal MacDonnell succeeded his father Somhairle Buidhe, and his brother Angus, called Ultagh Mac-Somhairle, or the son of Somhairle of Ulster, to dis¬tinguish him from his son Angus of Isla, disputed his possessions with him. Angus was an officer in the earl of Tir Eoghain's army, and survived the disastrous overthrow which Tir Eoghain sustained at Kinsale. In the dispute with his brother he was warmly supported by some of his kinsmen who opposed the proposed royal grant from king James to Randal. On one occasion, it is said, the two brothers met face to face, and blood would certainly have been spilled, the feud ran so high, had not a friar of Bun-na-Margie, one O'Dornan, stood forth and rung a bell denouncing the curse of St. Patrick against the wrongful claimant ; whereupon Angus desisted from further con¬testing his brother's rights, which, later in the same year, 1603, were confirmed to him: " for the preservation of his own from the violence of his bad kinsmen."
A rude old perforated cross stands at the west end of the church, where the beautiful door formerly stood, and it is said to mark the grave of Julia MacUillin, the " black nun" of Bun-na-Margie. At her special request, which was no doubt prompted by her humility, she was buried at the doorway, so that all who entered the sacred building should tread upon her grave. She also requested that the coffin which might be used to carry her body to the grave should not be interred, but given to the next poor person who died, and that she be buried without a coffin. It is generally believed that Julia MacUillin was a member of the family who had long ruled in these parts, and that she inherited all the pride and extravagance of her race. In later years, as a recluse, she sought the retirement of the Friary ruins, the date of her residence being about 1650. The little gate-house is still known by her name, and it may then have been sufficiently roofed to have afforded her the shelter she sought. She seems to have been more feared than liked, and wonderful prophecies made by her are still recorded. One weird but beautiful legend is worthy of repetition. On a wild stormy night the sinful sister of the " black nun " crept to the door of the cell where she was praying. The poor repentant woman implored her sister Julia to pray for her, but she would not answer, and upon being touched fled from her cell out into the graveyard, where she continued to pray in the storm. After a time she beheld issuing from the cell she had vacated beautiful gleams of light. Wonder¬ing at the sight she approached the cell, and, looking in, beheld her repentant sister kneeling on the floor with her hands in prayer in the centre of the gleam of light, and she heard a voice saying, " Come unto Me and I will give you rest," and her sister replied, " I come," and died, the light fading away. The " black nun " at once per¬ceived how wicked she had been, and how her sinful sister was nearer heaven than she was, practising her austerities alone. After that night it is said she never ceased succouring the sick, the poor, and the fallen. Of poor Julia it may well be said--
" Lay me in my hollow bed.
Grow the shamrocks over me ;
Three in one and one in three.
Faith and hope and charity.
Peace and rest and silence be
With me where you lay my head ;
Rosa Mulholland.
Julia MacUillin was a friend and visitor of Alice MacDonnell, first countess of Antrim, who erected the great east window in the friary about the time her husband erected the family vault (1621). The countess was the daughter of Aodh O'Neill, the renowned earl of Tir Eoghain, and long survived her husband. After his death she left Dunluce and came to reside at Ballycastle, from whence she was driven to take shelter amongst her own people in the valleys of Tir Eoghain by the hordes of covenanted Scots who came over in 1642 to take part in the wars of that period. Not until 1660 was the widowed countess permitted to enjoy her dowry lands at Ballycastle, after she had endured much distress and poverty during the commonwealth, when she was even forced to pawn " her two rings, a crosse, and a jewell of gold inlayed with rubies and diamonds." When the restoration had succeeded the gloom of puritanism, she writes from Bun-na-Margie to a friend in Dublin, asking him to use his influence " to gett my old dwellynge, Bally¬castle, to mee again." Whether the countess, who was then 8o years of age, was at this time living inside the walls of the ruined Monastery, or only sheltering in some temporary refuge within its precincts to be near her dead lord, cannot now be decided with accuracy.
The present remains of the monastery—and they clearly indicate all the main buildings that doubtless ever existed—consist of a large church 99 feet long by 24 feet 6 inches wide, showing no appearance of division into choir and nave, and void of aisles or side chapels, being a plain rectangular structure, with the great window at the east end and three smaller ones on the south side and none on the north. It is accurately orientated and built of Ballycastle sandstone, roughly hammered, and filled in with small field or river stones. The disappearance of the west wall has removed the door, which is traditionally supposed to have existed there, and is always referred to as one of great beauty and symmetry. Where it stood, the rude cross over the grave of Julia MacUillin now stands. The present east window has the look of having been inserted at a later date than the building of the church, as evidenced by the arch and appearances of insertion on the outside. It was a two-storied flamboyant window of most graceful form and beautiful proportions, and well entitled to the designation, " The Pride of the North." A most remarkable feature of the window is the interlaced carvings on either side of the terminals of the mouldings on the outside. Similar carvings are to be seen at the east window of the old church of Magheratemple on an adjoining eminence. This window is also two-storied, of a similar design to Bun-na-Margie and very beautiful.
The carving on the south side of the window represents a female head with cap and hanging lappets, whilst the ornament is cross-shaped with a central interlaced knot, the terminals expanding into leaves. That on the north side represents a male head also capped, the orna¬ment being an interlaced square having a cross centre. On the course above these carved stones, but adjoining, are two other stones beautifully carved in a similar style. These stones have the appearance of having been removed from an earlier structure and built where they now are for preservation ; and this is borne out by the fact that the ornament does not now show as it would have been placed originally, but transversely ; and both the stones are mutilated, although quite filling their present spaces.
The stone on the south side has a long interlaced plant pattern, with square leaves at the sides, terminated by a nondescript animal with a swinging tail ; whilst that to the north has a somewhat similar design, terminating in an equally indescribable animal, varied, however, by an interlaced tail. The arch-stone of the moulding is sur¬mounted by what may have been a head, or perhaps a cusped finial, now, however, obliterated by the storms of ages. After the monastery had been deserted by its occupants and the sacred vessels taken away, tradition records that they were hidden in the sandhills at a spot that would be illuminated by the altar light from the east window. The side stones of the altar still remain in situ, the one on the Gospel side having an aperture cut in it 12 in. by 18 in., but the covering stone has gone. Some say it was re-cut, and now rests in the north-east corner above the remains of " Francis Stewart, Bishop of Down and Connor," who was a Franciscan, and held the See from 1740 until 1750. I have lately had this grave slab restored and the lettering recut. Some say that this stone belonged to the old altar, the side stones of which still remain in their original place. There is a small door to the west end of the south wall which has the curious feature of being circular-headed inside and pointed outside. There is a beautifully carved drip-stone worked in the solid on the springer of this door ; the label or hood which rested on it has, however, disappeared.
Two of the windows on the south are still perfect showing flat-pointed arches outside and flat rough-built arches inside ; the third window is now exposed by the destruction of a portion of the Macnaghten monument. These windows are narrow, and would not admit much light, but are good examples of fifteenth century work. On the south side, running at right angles to the choir and in a line with the east wall, the present Antrim vault has been erected ; and as its construction is modern, bearing a slated roof, its appearance rather spoils the otherwise picturesque aspect of the ruins. Whether this vault occupies the site of an ancient transept or side chapel cannot be determined from present appearance, although there are some features to favour the supposition. Of these the built-up archway to the west of the entrance to the vault is one, the stones of which certainly have no appearance of modern cutting, but whether they have been removed from some other part of the building and inserted here, as some say, with no conceivable object however, cannot with certainty be determined. In my opinion it has been altered, but occupies its original site, and was the entrance to an earlier MacDonnell chapel or vault that existed before the present structure, which is described as having been newly roofed in the year 1833.
To the west of the built-up archway on the south wall the Macnaghten monument was erected, and to prepare a place for it a window was built up. This altar tomb, made of sandstone, was a fine one of its class, but is now, like the building around, half ruined.
On a line with the east wall of the church, on the north side, are the domestic buildings, consisting of a refectory 35 ft. long by 17 ft. 4 in. wide, with a smaller chamber 18 ft. 3 in. by 10 ft. 9 in., doubtless used for general purposes. This latter chamber is connected with the refectory by two square openings, not doors, but similar to serving windows, and may have been used as such ; it has also two cupboards, one in the west and one in the east wall, and a door into the passage on the south side which divides it from the church. There is also a built-up doorway on the east side, which I believe was made in recent years in order to facilitate burials in this vault, probably replacing a window. The south door and the cupboards make it probable that this apartment was used for domestic purposes, especially as the door into the passage would lead direct to the lodge to the east of the Abbey, which served the double purpose of guest-house and kitchen, there being no fireplaces either in the refec¬tory or smaller chamber.
The cloisters stood at the angle formed by the north wall of the church and the west wall of the domestic buildings. No traces of them at present exist except a few corbel stones and the marks of the line of roof along the walls ; they were constructed of material not so strong as the remaining buildings, wood probably being used in the pillars and roof. The placing of the cloisters on the north side of the church, in such an exposed place as Ballycastle, proved that the monks courted austerities ; although a cynical age may deem that the north side was protected by cloisters, whilst the sunny south wall did not require such ; and if dolce far niente was to be enjoyed, the lee side would doubtless be taken advantage of.
On the outside wall of the MacDonnell vault is inserted a square stone with the following raised inscription :--
IN DEI
DEI MATRISOVE VIRGIN
IS HONOREM NOILISSIMY
S ET ILLVTRISSIMVSRA
NDULPHV MACDONEI.L
COME SDEANTRIM HOC
SACELLMHEIRICVRAVIT
ANNO DOM l62I.
The very year of the erection of this stone by the comes de Antrim, saw his lordship summoned to Dublin by the lord deputy, Grandison, on a charge of having sheltered priests in his castle, as before mentioned. After some courtly talk—which meant in plain language that lord Antrim would do pretty much as he liked in religious matters - eschewing any interference from the English crown, and he continued so to act for many years, until clouds of more portent began to gather around the head of king Charles. For over thirty years lord Antrim afforded ample hospitality in his houses at Dunluce, Dunaneine, and Glenarm to a proscribed priesthood; and it is not a big stretch of imagination, when we know that he did so, to also conclude that the fabric of the family shrine at Bun-na-Margie received some attention, and at least the church may have been restored to its former uses and condition. Many things go to prove the earl to have been ardent in his religion. He had a son, Francis, who had donned the Franciscan habit, and would doubtless have been Guardian of Bun-na-Margie had not the times changed. The northern bishops unsuccessfully petitioned the Pope that he should be appointed to the See of Clogher ; one of the arguments considered of great moment and used in his favour was that "he, owing to his sire's connections with many of the principal families of England and Scotland, will be comparatively free in the exercise of his sacred calling."
It is also reported that the earl visited with his wife, she being childless, the celebrated wells of St. Brigid in the county of Roscommon, and afterwards, their prayers being answered, enclosed the same with a wall, into which a stone was inserted bearing the MacDonnell arms and the inscription — " Built by the right honourable Randall MacDonnell, first earl of Antrim, 1625."
It is thus evident that the powerful protection of the earl was willingly extended to the Church and the clergy, until he was laid at rest in old Bun-na-Margie in the year 1636.
The MacDonnell vault contains eight coffins and a small lead box, one of them having the following Irish inscription : --
Mon an beurd bar ui cholla
Do leath-cuinn ‘r don taobh-tuaith
Cearnaidh go deipth rilear oppa
O lo paghno rill cum an uaig
It is a curious fact that the three ladies O'Neill were not buried with their lords in Bun-na-Margie. Mary, the wife of Somhairle Buidhe, sleeps with her own kindred at Armagh ; Alice, the wife of Randall, the first earl of Antrim, lies in her native Tir Eoghain ; whilst Rose, the wife of Randal the magnificent, the first marquis of Antrim, was buried beside her father and mother in the church of St. Nicholas at Carrickfergus.
And so repose the mighty, the great, the turbulent ; a few weak planks or a little lead hold those whom armies failed to conquer, stratagem to encompass, or treachery to drag down.
" Have them in Thy holy keeping!
God, be with them lying sleeping! "
Sir S. Ferguson.
In the year 1820 an oak chest was opened in the Antrim vault, and in it several documents were found. At the beginning of the present century a rod of gold was found in the adjoining stream. It was 38 inches long, and terminated in hooks at both ends. The rod was over 20 oz. in weight, and was made of three wires twisted together. This valuable relic is not now known to exist ; so like many other similar finds, it has probably passed into the jeweller's melting-pot, in 1851 a wrought gilt key was found near the ruins, and was, I believe, deposited in the Irish Academy, but after faithful search I have failed to discover it. A few years later a storm disclosed amongst the sand close to the ruins, some fragments of crosses and book covers, and a small round silver box, which was subsequently made into a pyxis for use in Ballycastle Church.
At a distance of 21 yards from the Friary, in an easterly direction, stands the most distinctly picturesque portion of the ruins, isolated and alone, yet associated with the main buildings. The little guest-house, gate-lodge, or kitchen, or all three combined, is unique in its way. It is about 19 ft. 3 in. long by 13 ft. 3 in. wide, and is built north and south, two stories high, the northern gable showing a high tottering chimney of cut stone. It may be that the grounds immediately surrounding the monastery were fenced in, either with a mound or a stockade, of which no portion now exists, and that lawful entrance was alone effected through this lych gate, where a member of the community would always remain ; or it may be that this was a hospital or guest-house, and that the extra luxury of a fire denied to the community was given to patients or guests. The whole building has the appearance and similarity of style of the domestic buildings of the monastery.
My task is finished. I have recorded in a brief, broken, and disconnected manner all I know, what I have observed, what is recorded in books, and many things kind friends have told me, concerning the dismantled storm-battered ruins of the one time famous Franciscan monastery of Bun-na-Margie, around whose walls have raged the fights of centuries, the clang of swords, the burning shot, the exultant cry of the victors, and the deep groans of the wounded and the dying, and within whose precincts repose the men of peace side by side with those who revelled in war and in the rumours of war, to whom the red flag of carnage was a sight to gladden the eye and thrill the blood, quickening the arm to further deeds of rapine and slaughter. Now all is peace, the sun shines and the dew of heaven falls equally on the just and the unjust, and the mortal remains of each have returned to their common mother, the earth, from which they were created, whilst their spirits have departed to that Otherland, happy or otherwise, each to reap the reward of the deeds done in the flesh.
The site of the monastery is in itself one of great beauty and attractiveness, and must have afforded constant delight and satisfaction to the habited occupiers when the friary was in its early glory, as it does still to all who visit its roofless nave and gaze upon its great shattered window.
We can readily picture the friars on a bright Easter morning, trooping out of the beautiful western door of their church after the early service, with the resounding Te Deum and the music of the songs of exultation still ringing in their ears, to gaze up at the great dome of Cnoc-lade clearly cutting into the blue sky, the fleecy clouds chasing each other like lambs across the valley of Glensiesc, with the winding waters of the Margie dancing over their pebbly bed in the sunlight close at hand, the deep pools sheltered by the hazel woods, or the overhanging banks affording ample shelter for the speckled trout which largely supplied the table of these Franciscan brothers.
To the north and the east stretched the long piled-up sand-dunes, against which the great waves of the Atlantic dashed and thundered in the winter's wind, unchecked by the far-away break-water of the rugged island of Rachrai or gently broke in white foam along the pebbly beach in the setting sun of a summer's day.
To the east, Benmore rises from the sea, at first with a stair-like slope, then upright as a pine cleaving the sky, tremendous and ever beautiful, whether in sunshine or shade, calm or storm, its massive brow ever speaking of power and majesty. Nearer at hand, sheltered by the white crescent of Caenbann, nestled the port of MacDonnell's Castle, long known as Margie-town. Here, by the pure stream, religion has left her mark by the hand of the monk.
Such were the surroundings of the friary of Bun-na-Margie, and such they still remain, affording prospects not to be surpassed on our northern coast. But it cannot be said that the advantages of the locality called forth the house. The district around Ballycastle has a history reaching to the earliest eras, deep into the misty past of the mythical age long anterior to Christianity. Had not the children of Uisneach landed in the bay on their fateful return from Glen Etive, and are not their wanderings and the love they bore each other still told in the Antrim glens? When the first stone of the friary was laid, the ramparts of Dun-Rainie, within an arrow-shot, bore evidences of a regal habitation, whilst the great carns on Cnoc-lade spoke of royal graves reddened by the rays of the rising sun and gilded with its setting glory.
The immediate cause of the sacred edifice rearing its many gables on the river's bank is unknown, but doubtless it was founded by some princely clan; for the mediaeval chieftain, whilst fully relying upon the strength of his own right arm, depended also upon the prayers of the religious during life, and more especially the care bestowed upon the dead, when each warrior was laid to rest in his coat of armour, his sword by his side, within the precincts of the choir,—or some fair maid was snatched away in the bloom of youth from the castle's bower, or aged mother who perhaps had seen her many sons borne to their tombs before she had been laid beside her departed lord. Thus it was that every princely house founded at least one monastery, where the rites of religion could be administered with befitting pomp and pageantry, within whose church all the clan could crowd to see the nuptial ceremony, or assemble at the great thanksgiving, when the chief, safely returned from strife laden with the spoils of victory, never forgetting a due and proper offering for the house, implored rest for the souls of his ancestors and those fallen in battle ; or, as was often the case, the piercing caoine of the mourners was heard, as the corpse of the warrior was borne shoulder high by his clansmen and followers along the strand to the abbey's gate, there to be met and received—mangled and pierced as it was—by the men of peace, and borne down the darkened aisle to dirge and funeral chant, amidst the wail¬ing of followers and the muttered vows of revenge.
" Lay their spears and bucklers bright
By the warriors' sides aright;
Lay upon the low grave floor,
'Neath each head, the blue claymore;
Lay the collars, as is meet,
Of their greyhounds at their feet :
In the falcon's jesses throw,
Hook and arrow, line and bow."
Sir S. Ferguson.
All the glamour of these old-time customs has passed away with the extinguished glories of Bun-na-Margie, and the bare walls, once resonant with prayers and psalms, now only re-echo the plaintive notes of the sea lairds as they poise themselves aloft above its deserted cloisters, or the swish of the mower's scythe is heard in the rich meadows where the dead lie thick together, or the cry of the corn-crake resounds through the vaults in the hush of a warm June night. To the antiquary alone remains the duty, in these later days, of gathering up the fragments of the past and piecing them together, so that some image, with many cracks and many defects it may be, can be seen and recorded for the present and future ages.
It is said that the Franciscans founded their first house in Ireland at Youghal about 1224, just at the time when the enthusiasm kindled by the Crusades was at its height throughout the Continent, and when all the religious orders flourished at their best. The followers of St. Assisi were noted for their vows of poverty and charity, and many remarkable legends are recorded of the early members of the Order. As to the exact date of the foundation of the friary we can find no record. By some it is stated that it was founded as early as A.D. 1202 by William de Burgo " To the Honour of God and the Virgin ; " and some credence is given to this by the early seventeenth century inscription on the Antrim vault, " In dei deimatrisque virginis honorem." Whether this is merely the coincidence of the use of a favourite dedication or not we cannot say, but it is recorded in the Monasticon Hibernicum that " about the year 1202 William de Burgh granted the Village of Ardimur, with the Church and all its appurtenances, to Richard, one of the monks of Glastonbury, to found a priory to the honour of God and the Virgin Mary." At this period William de Burgo was earl of Ulster, and nominally had these lands in his possession ; and if he was the first of the sept MacUillin — which, however, is disputed — it would certainly go to explain why this clan always claimed Bun-na-Margie as a foundation of their family. The De Burgos were lords of Connacht, and became entitled to the earldom of Ulster by marriage with De Lacy's daughter. It is told that Richard de Burgo, the red earl, brought the MacUillins from Connacht, and the Bissets from Scotland to keep the O'Neills in check. In later years the MacDonnells claimed these lands by descent from the Bissets and by conquest from the MacUillins, whilst the O'Neills always insisted that they were overlords of the Mac¬Donnells. In a manuscript list of Franciscan monasteries in Ireland, it is recorded that Bun-na-Margie was founded by Ruare MacUillin in the year 1500 ; thus again, although at a different date, its foundation is ascribed to a Mac¬Uillin. No reliable authority has ever given the erection of this Monastery to the MacDonnells, although, as the conquerors and successors of the MacUuillins, they assumed its patronage and made it their burial-place, and with their name it is now chiefly associated.
The general architecture of the ruins bears out its early foundation, probably the fourteenth century, although here and there later features are to be observed ; but before we treat of them more fully, we desire to exhaust as far as possible the historic references to our subject. Of course the fateful year 1537 saw the suppression of this monastery with all the others throughout the kingdom ; but being situated in a remote district, with the lord and the people still favourable to the monastery, it is not to be supposed that suppression meant an immediate expulsion of the monks from its walls, for it is known that they lingered about its aisles for many years afterwards, nor did they finally leave until the MacDonnells had embraced the protestant faith, although during that time their existence had been checkered and filled with much adversity, and their numbers had dwindled to insignificance.
The last great religious ceremony associated with the name of Bun-na-Margie is that recorded in the Spicelegium Ossoriense, when Dr. Bonaventure Magennis, a Francis¬can, confirmed about 700 Highland Scots in the month of October, 1639. The Scottish islanders were refugees from the bitter covenanting persecutions which were com¬menced in that year against the catholics in particular. Amongst them was the laird of Largie (a MacDonnell), who died at Bun-na-Margie and was buried there. So endeared were the old walls to the Scots, that they long-continued to flock in great numbers every year to Ballycastle, during the fair, to visit their kinsmen and to form alliances of a more lasting nature. It must have been a pathetic scene this confirmation of the Highlanders—the big rugged men, with their Gaelic tongue, ancient costume, and fierce weapons, prostrate before the bishop of their old faith, receiving a right that their country had discarded, amidst surroundings that England had decreed idolatrous and profane.
Bishop Magennis sojourned with his relative, Randall, first earl of Antrim, who had before this got into trouble for harbouring " Romish priests." In 1621 he had been summoned to Dublin by the lord deputy, Grandison, to answer such a charge, and lord Antrim appealed to the king, pleading guilty, and receiving the king's pardon, " in respect that he has so ingeniously acknowledged his errors, and faithfully promised not to fall into the like again."
Bun-na-Margie must then have been repaired, for around its walls, from the year 1559, the renowned Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell had fought the MacUillins many times with fateful results to them ; but the great disaster to the Friary occurred in this wise. In January, 1584, the English, under Sir John Perrott, were pressing the Scots very hard on the North coast ; they had taken Dunluce, and were now at Ballycastle. Sir Henry Wallop was cursing his fate in having to land stores from the ships on rafts in Margietown Bay. Captain Carlisle and captain Warren had their men and horses lodged in the church of Bun-na-Margie, with two companies encamped close by, when '' about 11 of the clok the same nyght came certayne troupes of Skottes on foote, and aboute vi horse¬men with them, who had upon their staves wadds lyghted, wherewyth they sodaynly sett the roofe of the churche, being thatched, on fyer. They gave us a brave camisado, and entered our campe. The alarme being geven, I came forth in my shert, and at our first encounter, my men answeringe with mee verie gallantlie, we put them off the ground, where the left one of their men that was emongst them of greate accompte ; he was Sorlles gydon. They would fayne have had him away, but they were so plyed with shotte that they left him and the field also, and fell to ronnynge away ; where our horsemen might have done good servis, they were so pestered in the churche that they could not get forthe theire horses in time to doo anythinge, and yet the skermish contynued three quarters of an owre. Ther wer bornt in the church seven horses and seven hackneys. I had slayne my sergeant and one armed man, William Jones. Captain Carleille had one killed and eight hurte, and I had twelve choys men hurte and myself with arrows in the raynes of my bak as I called forward my men in the arme and in the flanke and through the thigh, of which wounds I am verie sore, although I trust in God I shall recover it."
Sir John Perrott, lord deputy of Ireland, writing in the same year, 1584, to Sir Francis Walsingham, the English secretary of state, says : " For a token I have sent you Holy Columcill's crosse—a god of great veneration with Surely Boy and all Ulster ; for so great was his grace, as happy he thought himself that coulde gett a kisse of the said crosse. I send him unto you that when you have made some sacrifice to him according to the disposition you beare to idolatrie, you maie, if you please, bestowe him upon my good lady Walsingham or my lady Sidney to weare as a Jewell of weight and bignesse, and not of prise and goodness, upon some solempne feastc or triumph daie at the courte." The lord deputy had just gone to Ulster against Somhairle Buidhe, and Saint Columcille's cross was part of the spoil he had carried away. This valuable relic was long preserved on Torah Island, but how it came into possession of the MacDonnells is unrecorded. The date of this letter corresponds with the time the English held Bun-na-Margie ; the relics and valuables of the house must have fallen into their hands, and this would explain how the cross came into the pos¬session of Perrott to be bestowed "upon my good lady Walsingham." If it had been in the private possession of Somhairle Buidhe, or even in his castle, it would have been carefully preserved ; but the capture of the monastery was unexpected, and so the cross came as a spoil to the English. Its existence is now uncertain : perhaps it may still be preserved unknown, in a cabinet of some ducal house : or, alas ! its jewels may have been taken from its case to form a newer fashion in ladies' trinkets, and the remainder cast aside as worthless.
In the despatch of captain Warren more detail con¬cerning the injury to the men is given than the damage done to the monastery. The incident, however, dates the destruction of the church, and doubtless the domestic buildings also, for the fire must have been great when the horses were destroyed that had been stabled within its walls. The confirmation of the Highlanders took place in Bun-na-Margie, which had then been repaired and the beautiful east window added, and not at the locus refugii of the monks in Ardagh at the top of Glensiesc, where they afterwards lingered when the friary had been taken from them and their religion pro¬scribed. Here they found a temporary home, with others of their order, when the roofs had disappeared from the walls they loved so dearly, and their most sacred spots desecrated, their altars cast down, and the graves and monuments of the illustrious dead levelled with the ground. With what sad eyes and lingering looks they must have beheld their venerated house, as they hurried to and fro from their secret haunt in the vale of Glensiesc to the little harbour at Margietown, as they took ship to the securer isles of the Western Hebrides, or sailed away to the sunny land of France, to the vine-clad houses of their brethren by the banks of the Rhone and the Loire. Times had changed, and no more for them was Bun-na-Margie to be a mother. The deep-sounding breakers on the neighbouring strand were to make midnight music for other ears, and the high-dashing spray on Carrig-Uisneach was to be seen by other eyes ; whilst the lark of the meadow was to sing matins over crumbling walls, and the plaintive notes of the curlew were alone to sound the funeral dirge of those whose souls had crossed the bar.
The community was of the Third Order of Franciscans, but by the decree of the director-general, dated 15th August, 1687, Bun-na-Margie became a monastery of Franciscans Strictioris Observantiae. This was when the few remaining members of the order had gone into their locus refugii in Glensiesc, having joined some Carrick-fergus brethren of the latter order. Guardians were appointed until 1837, but such appointments were only nominal, as any community had long ceased to exist.
Somhairle Buidhe MacDonnell, the youngest son of Alexander MacDonnell, was head of the clan during the latter part of the sixteenth century ; but we need not here dwell upon his daring and prowess, save to point out what manner of man he was. He lived to see at least four of his brothers laid to rest in Bun-na-Margie. His wife, Mary O'Neill, daughter of Con, first earl of Tir Eoghain, was buried with her own people at Armagh. By the way, a curious story is told of a monk travelling from the primatial city to Glenarm to beg the body of Seaghan O'Neill, who had been slain at the instigation of the English. " Father," said he, addressing a friar, " I come from our brothers of Armagh to beg the body of Seaghan O'Neill, so that we may bury it beside his ancestors in Armagh." The friar replied, " Have you," said he, " brought with you the remains of James MacDonnell, lord of Antrim and Cantire, who was buried amongst the strangers of Armagh? " The answer was that he had not done so." Then," replied the friar, " whilst you continue to tread on James, lord of Antrim and Cantire, know ye that we here in Glenarm will continue to tread on the dust of the great O'Neill."
This same Seaghan an Diomas had, to weaken the English influence in Ireland and to strengthen his own nation, defeated the MacDonnells with tremendous slaughter at Glentaise, not far from the walls of Bun-na-Margie, and had taken Somhairle Buidhe a prisoner, releasing him two years later at Cushendun, when he was driven to take shelter with that clan. Somhairle Buidhe had driven the English from Carrickfergus—had fought the queen's forces at Newry—had burned in his castle-yard of Dunaneine on the point of his sword the grant of his lands which queen Elizabeth had bestowed upon him, saying what he had won by the sword he did not intend to hold by parchment. The year 1590 saw this chieftain, this the greatest of all the MacDonnells, laid beside the bones of his kindred in the old friary of his ancestors ; but now there are
" No sign to regret thee.
No eye to rain over thee,
No dirge to lament thee,
No friend to deplore thee ! "
J. J. Callanan.
In contrast to his particularly wild and stormy career, Somhairle died in bed in his castle of Dunaneine, over¬looking the Bay of Ballycastle and the Franciscan friary. " The faithful clansmen carried the remains of their brave old chieftain down the slope of the castle-hill, past the harbour where he had so often welcomed his Clandonnell kinsmen to the Antrim shore, and across the ford of the Margie, where the Irish caoine and the Highland caronach mingled in one wild wail for the dead." We can picture such a scene as this, the long wailing crowd descending the castle-crowned cliff with the coffin borne along by stalwart clansmen, and the old friary with tolling bell sadly awaiting the approaching funeral train. Most of Somhairle's children predeceased him, some falling by murder and English treachery. In 1575 the earl of Essex, finding out that the women and children of the MacDonnells had been sent to the island of Rachrai for safety, despatched ships under Norris, who burned and slaughtered all upon the island. The proud English earl thought this a fair return for the defeats inflicted upon him in the open field. The chieftains were laid to rest within the walls of the church, the clansmen in the surrounding graveyard. A few years later saw this burial ground for many seasons as red as a tiled hill-side, with no grass growing there, so numerous were the burials ; and even within recent memory a great pile of bones, collected from the adjoining fields, were heaped against the graveyard wall. They have since, however, received interment.
Sir Randal MacDonnell succeeded his father Somhairle Buidhe, and his brother Angus, called Ultagh Mac-Somhairle, or the son of Somhairle of Ulster, to dis¬tinguish him from his son Angus of Isla, disputed his possessions with him. Angus was an officer in the earl of Tir Eoghain's army, and survived the disastrous overthrow which Tir Eoghain sustained at Kinsale. In the dispute with his brother he was warmly supported by some of his kinsmen who opposed the proposed royal grant from king James to Randal. On one occasion, it is said, the two brothers met face to face, and blood would certainly have been spilled, the feud ran so high, had not a friar of Bun-na-Margie, one O'Dornan, stood forth and rung a bell denouncing the curse of St. Patrick against the wrongful claimant ; whereupon Angus desisted from further con¬testing his brother's rights, which, later in the same year, 1603, were confirmed to him: " for the preservation of his own from the violence of his bad kinsmen."
A rude old perforated cross stands at the west end of the church, where the beautiful door formerly stood, and it is said to mark the grave of Julia MacUillin, the " black nun" of Bun-na-Margie. At her special request, which was no doubt prompted by her humility, she was buried at the doorway, so that all who entered the sacred building should tread upon her grave. She also requested that the coffin which might be used to carry her body to the grave should not be interred, but given to the next poor person who died, and that she be buried without a coffin. It is generally believed that Julia MacUillin was a member of the family who had long ruled in these parts, and that she inherited all the pride and extravagance of her race. In later years, as a recluse, she sought the retirement of the Friary ruins, the date of her residence being about 1650. The little gate-house is still known by her name, and it may then have been sufficiently roofed to have afforded her the shelter she sought. She seems to have been more feared than liked, and wonderful prophecies made by her are still recorded. One weird but beautiful legend is worthy of repetition. On a wild stormy night the sinful sister of the " black nun " crept to the door of the cell where she was praying. The poor repentant woman implored her sister Julia to pray for her, but she would not answer, and upon being touched fled from her cell out into the graveyard, where she continued to pray in the storm. After a time she beheld issuing from the cell she had vacated beautiful gleams of light. Wonder¬ing at the sight she approached the cell, and, looking in, beheld her repentant sister kneeling on the floor with her hands in prayer in the centre of the gleam of light, and she heard a voice saying, " Come unto Me and I will give you rest," and her sister replied, " I come," and died, the light fading away. The " black nun " at once per¬ceived how wicked she had been, and how her sinful sister was nearer heaven than she was, practising her austerities alone. After that night it is said she never ceased succouring the sick, the poor, and the fallen. Of poor Julia it may well be said--
" Lay me in my hollow bed.
Grow the shamrocks over me ;
Three in one and one in three.
Faith and hope and charity.
Peace and rest and silence be
With me where you lay my head ;
Rosa Mulholland.
Julia MacUillin was a friend and visitor of Alice MacDonnell, first countess of Antrim, who erected the great east window in the friary about the time her husband erected the family vault (1621). The countess was the daughter of Aodh O'Neill, the renowned earl of Tir Eoghain, and long survived her husband. After his death she left Dunluce and came to reside at Ballycastle, from whence she was driven to take shelter amongst her own people in the valleys of Tir Eoghain by the hordes of covenanted Scots who came over in 1642 to take part in the wars of that period. Not until 1660 was the widowed countess permitted to enjoy her dowry lands at Ballycastle, after she had endured much distress and poverty during the commonwealth, when she was even forced to pawn " her two rings, a crosse, and a jewell of gold inlayed with rubies and diamonds." When the restoration had succeeded the gloom of puritanism, she writes from Bun-na-Margie to a friend in Dublin, asking him to use his influence " to gett my old dwellynge, Bally¬castle, to mee again." Whether the countess, who was then 8o years of age, was at this time living inside the walls of the ruined Monastery, or only sheltering in some temporary refuge within its precincts to be near her dead lord, cannot now be decided with accuracy.
The present remains of the monastery—and they clearly indicate all the main buildings that doubtless ever existed—consist of a large church 99 feet long by 24 feet 6 inches wide, showing no appearance of division into choir and nave, and void of aisles or side chapels, being a plain rectangular structure, with the great window at the east end and three smaller ones on the south side and none on the north. It is accurately orientated and built of Ballycastle sandstone, roughly hammered, and filled in with small field or river stones. The disappearance of the west wall has removed the door, which is traditionally supposed to have existed there, and is always referred to as one of great beauty and symmetry. Where it stood, the rude cross over the grave of Julia MacUillin now stands. The present east window has the look of having been inserted at a later date than the building of the church, as evidenced by the arch and appearances of insertion on the outside. It was a two-storied flamboyant window of most graceful form and beautiful proportions, and well entitled to the designation, " The Pride of the North." A most remarkable feature of the window is the interlaced carvings on either side of the terminals of the mouldings on the outside. Similar carvings are to be seen at the east window of the old church of Magheratemple on an adjoining eminence. This window is also two-storied, of a similar design to Bun-na-Margie and very beautiful.
The carving on the south side of the window represents a female head with cap and hanging lappets, whilst the ornament is cross-shaped with a central interlaced knot, the terminals expanding into leaves. That on the north side represents a male head also capped, the orna¬ment being an interlaced square having a cross centre. On the course above these carved stones, but adjoining, are two other stones beautifully carved in a similar style. These stones have the appearance of having been removed from an earlier structure and built where they now are for preservation ; and this is borne out by the fact that the ornament does not now show as it would have been placed originally, but transversely ; and both the stones are mutilated, although quite filling their present spaces.
The stone on the south side has a long interlaced plant pattern, with square leaves at the sides, terminated by a nondescript animal with a swinging tail ; whilst that to the north has a somewhat similar design, terminating in an equally indescribable animal, varied, however, by an interlaced tail. The arch-stone of the moulding is sur¬mounted by what may have been a head, or perhaps a cusped finial, now, however, obliterated by the storms of ages. After the monastery had been deserted by its occupants and the sacred vessels taken away, tradition records that they were hidden in the sandhills at a spot that would be illuminated by the altar light from the east window. The side stones of the altar still remain in situ, the one on the Gospel side having an aperture cut in it 12 in. by 18 in., but the covering stone has gone. Some say it was re-cut, and now rests in the north-east corner above the remains of " Francis Stewart, Bishop of Down and Connor," who was a Franciscan, and held the See from 1740 until 1750. I have lately had this grave slab restored and the lettering recut. Some say that this stone belonged to the old altar, the side stones of which still remain in their original place. There is a small door to the west end of the south wall which has the curious feature of being circular-headed inside and pointed outside. There is a beautifully carved drip-stone worked in the solid on the springer of this door ; the label or hood which rested on it has, however, disappeared.
Two of the windows on the south are still perfect showing flat-pointed arches outside and flat rough-built arches inside ; the third window is now exposed by the destruction of a portion of the Macnaghten monument. These windows are narrow, and would not admit much light, but are good examples of fifteenth century work. On the south side, running at right angles to the choir and in a line with the east wall, the present Antrim vault has been erected ; and as its construction is modern, bearing a slated roof, its appearance rather spoils the otherwise picturesque aspect of the ruins. Whether this vault occupies the site of an ancient transept or side chapel cannot be determined from present appearance, although there are some features to favour the supposition. Of these the built-up archway to the west of the entrance to the vault is one, the stones of which certainly have no appearance of modern cutting, but whether they have been removed from some other part of the building and inserted here, as some say, with no conceivable object however, cannot with certainty be determined. In my opinion it has been altered, but occupies its original site, and was the entrance to an earlier MacDonnell chapel or vault that existed before the present structure, which is described as having been newly roofed in the year 1833.
To the west of the built-up archway on the south wall the Macnaghten monument was erected, and to prepare a place for it a window was built up. This altar tomb, made of sandstone, was a fine one of its class, but is now, like the building around, half ruined.
On a line with the east wall of the church, on the north side, are the domestic buildings, consisting of a refectory 35 ft. long by 17 ft. 4 in. wide, with a smaller chamber 18 ft. 3 in. by 10 ft. 9 in., doubtless used for general purposes. This latter chamber is connected with the refectory by two square openings, not doors, but similar to serving windows, and may have been used as such ; it has also two cupboards, one in the west and one in the east wall, and a door into the passage on the south side which divides it from the church. There is also a built-up doorway on the east side, which I believe was made in recent years in order to facilitate burials in this vault, probably replacing a window. The south door and the cupboards make it probable that this apartment was used for domestic purposes, especially as the door into the passage would lead direct to the lodge to the east of the Abbey, which served the double purpose of guest-house and kitchen, there being no fireplaces either in the refec¬tory or smaller chamber.
The cloisters stood at the angle formed by the north wall of the church and the west wall of the domestic buildings. No traces of them at present exist except a few corbel stones and the marks of the line of roof along the walls ; they were constructed of material not so strong as the remaining buildings, wood probably being used in the pillars and roof. The placing of the cloisters on the north side of the church, in such an exposed place as Ballycastle, proved that the monks courted austerities ; although a cynical age may deem that the north side was protected by cloisters, whilst the sunny south wall did not require such ; and if dolce far niente was to be enjoyed, the lee side would doubtless be taken advantage of.
On the outside wall of the MacDonnell vault is inserted a square stone with the following raised inscription :--
IN DEI
DEI MATRISOVE VIRGIN
IS HONOREM NOILISSIMY
S ET ILLVTRISSIMVSRA
NDULPHV MACDONEI.L
COME SDEANTRIM HOC
SACELLMHEIRICVRAVIT
ANNO DOM l62I.
The very year of the erection of this stone by the comes de Antrim, saw his lordship summoned to Dublin by the lord deputy, Grandison, on a charge of having sheltered priests in his castle, as before mentioned. After some courtly talk—which meant in plain language that lord Antrim would do pretty much as he liked in religious matters - eschewing any interference from the English crown, and he continued so to act for many years, until clouds of more portent began to gather around the head of king Charles. For over thirty years lord Antrim afforded ample hospitality in his houses at Dunluce, Dunaneine, and Glenarm to a proscribed priesthood; and it is not a big stretch of imagination, when we know that he did so, to also conclude that the fabric of the family shrine at Bun-na-Margie received some attention, and at least the church may have been restored to its former uses and condition. Many things go to prove the earl to have been ardent in his religion. He had a son, Francis, who had donned the Franciscan habit, and would doubtless have been Guardian of Bun-na-Margie had not the times changed. The northern bishops unsuccessfully petitioned the Pope that he should be appointed to the See of Clogher ; one of the arguments considered of great moment and used in his favour was that "he, owing to his sire's connections with many of the principal families of England and Scotland, will be comparatively free in the exercise of his sacred calling."
It is also reported that the earl visited with his wife, she being childless, the celebrated wells of St. Brigid in the county of Roscommon, and afterwards, their prayers being answered, enclosed the same with a wall, into which a stone was inserted bearing the MacDonnell arms and the inscription — " Built by the right honourable Randall MacDonnell, first earl of Antrim, 1625."
It is thus evident that the powerful protection of the earl was willingly extended to the Church and the clergy, until he was laid at rest in old Bun-na-Margie in the year 1636.
The MacDonnell vault contains eight coffins and a small lead box, one of them having the following Irish inscription : --
Mon an beurd bar ui cholla
Do leath-cuinn ‘r don taobh-tuaith
Cearnaidh go deipth rilear oppa
O lo paghno rill cum an uaig
It is a curious fact that the three ladies O'Neill were not buried with their lords in Bun-na-Margie. Mary, the wife of Somhairle Buidhe, sleeps with her own kindred at Armagh ; Alice, the wife of Randall, the first earl of Antrim, lies in her native Tir Eoghain ; whilst Rose, the wife of Randal the magnificent, the first marquis of Antrim, was buried beside her father and mother in the church of St. Nicholas at Carrickfergus.
And so repose the mighty, the great, the turbulent ; a few weak planks or a little lead hold those whom armies failed to conquer, stratagem to encompass, or treachery to drag down.
" Have them in Thy holy keeping!
God, be with them lying sleeping! "
Sir S. Ferguson.
In the year 1820 an oak chest was opened in the Antrim vault, and in it several documents were found. At the beginning of the present century a rod of gold was found in the adjoining stream. It was 38 inches long, and terminated in hooks at both ends. The rod was over 20 oz. in weight, and was made of three wires twisted together. This valuable relic is not now known to exist ; so like many other similar finds, it has probably passed into the jeweller's melting-pot, in 1851 a wrought gilt key was found near the ruins, and was, I believe, deposited in the Irish Academy, but after faithful search I have failed to discover it. A few years later a storm disclosed amongst the sand close to the ruins, some fragments of crosses and book covers, and a small round silver box, which was subsequently made into a pyxis for use in Ballycastle Church.
At a distance of 21 yards from the Friary, in an easterly direction, stands the most distinctly picturesque portion of the ruins, isolated and alone, yet associated with the main buildings. The little guest-house, gate-lodge, or kitchen, or all three combined, is unique in its way. It is about 19 ft. 3 in. long by 13 ft. 3 in. wide, and is built north and south, two stories high, the northern gable showing a high tottering chimney of cut stone. It may be that the grounds immediately surrounding the monastery were fenced in, either with a mound or a stockade, of which no portion now exists, and that lawful entrance was alone effected through this lych gate, where a member of the community would always remain ; or it may be that this was a hospital or guest-house, and that the extra luxury of a fire denied to the community was given to patients or guests. The whole building has the appearance and similarity of style of the domestic buildings of the monastery.
My task is finished. I have recorded in a brief, broken, and disconnected manner all I know, what I have observed, what is recorded in books, and many things kind friends have told me, concerning the dismantled storm-battered ruins of the one time famous Franciscan monastery of Bun-na-Margie, around whose walls have raged the fights of centuries, the clang of swords, the burning shot, the exultant cry of the victors, and the deep groans of the wounded and the dying, and within whose precincts repose the men of peace side by side with those who revelled in war and in the rumours of war, to whom the red flag of carnage was a sight to gladden the eye and thrill the blood, quickening the arm to further deeds of rapine and slaughter. Now all is peace, the sun shines and the dew of heaven falls equally on the just and the unjust, and the mortal remains of each have returned to their common mother, the earth, from which they were created, whilst their spirits have departed to that Otherland, happy or otherwise, each to reap the reward of the deeds done in the flesh.