GREY abbey was founded in 1193 by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy and daughter of Godfred, king of Man. Tradition says that Affreca founded the abbey in thanksgiving for a safe landing after a perilous journey at sea. The abbey was colonised with monks from Holmcultram in Cumberland, with which it maintained close ties in the early years. The construction of the stone church began almost immediately. In 1222 and again in 1237 abbots of Grey went on to become abbots of Holmcultram by the Savigniac Order.
The abbey was situated in the Ards Peninsula, seven miles from Newtownards, at the confluence of a small river and the Strangford Lough. The Latin name of the abbey is Iugum Dei, which means ‘Yoke of God’. The abbey was dissolved in 1541 and in the same yeare part of the monastic property was granted to Gerald, earl of Kildare. The monastery was destroyed during the military operations of the Elizabethan era. It was a splendid structure, and the "Friars of Orders Gray" made it their abode for many centuries, until their "reforming" countrymen, the English drove them out, in the reign of Elizabeth. By moonlight, particularly, the great archway, through which are caught glimpses of other ruins, presents a majestic appearance.
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The arch itself is one of the noblest relics of olden monastic splendor to be found in Ireland. It bears all the massive, yet graceful, features of the Norman-Gothic style of sacred architecture, and is a memorial of the practical piety, as well as the bloody prowess, of the famous John De Courcy, who while conquering an plundering the native Irish, was not bashful in erecting a splendid temple for the worship of the God of justice, at the request of his Manx consort. The Cork De Courcys from partially the Dol-Dinan line, Norman dukedom Nevilles, Olaf the Red Sigurdsson, King Fergus de Courcy of the Isle of Man, adopted MacPatrick. The Upper Ards were very early a district possesed by the MacGillmores. |
ARCHWAY, GREY ABBEY, CO. DOWN. -Monestrela | Talbot |
In 1572, Brian Ó Neill burnt Grey abbey in order to stop it being used as a refuge for English colonists trying to settle in the Ards Peninsula. In the seventeenth century the church nave was re-roofed and served as a parish church until 1778. The remains of the abbey include the abbey church and some of the conventual buildings, dating from c. 1193- c. 1250. The original plan of the monastery can be followed with ease through foundations and earthworks. The abbot’s seate is preserved at Grey abbey, which is one of the few monastic seats to have survived.