Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/02/047

Address :
Ardkeen Old Church Castle Hill Rowreagh Road Ardkeen Kircubbin Newtownards Co. Down BT22 1A?

Townland:
Ardkeen

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
187/12

IG Ref:
J5940 5699

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Owner Category

Central Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

Ardkeen Old Church is the roofless ruin of a largely simple rectangular gabled church close to the shore of an inlet on the E side of Strangford Lough, on the S side of Castle Hill. Constructed in split stone random rubble with some rough dressing and quoins and measuring c.18m x 8.5m, this church is medieval in origin (probably early thirteenth century) but was heightened and restored by c.1761. It is now in a poor condition and badly overgrown. There is evidence of a now blocked doorway to the left on the N side, with a small (now low level) lancet opening further to the right. The south side shows traces of three large semicircular arch windows, now blocked. The front (W) gable once had a centred semicircular arched doorway, which is now partly blocked, above which is the trace of a small semicircular arched opening, now completely blocked. The east gable has trace of a now blocked large semicircular arch window. There is sandstone eaves cornice to the N and S sides. The church is surrounded by a small graveyard with many good head stones dating back to 1729, with Savage family grave slabs within the church walls with an earliest date of 1649 and a narrow medieval stone with an incised cross which appears to have been placed fairly recently against the interior E wall. The church and graveyard are surrounded on all sides by a rubble wall.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The church of Ardkeen (‘ecclesiam de Arkien’) is first mentioned in a papal document of 1204. It is uncertain, however, whether the actual church was built in the years following the arrival of the Normans in 1177/78 or whether this source refers to one of much more ancient origin which the newcomers simply appropriated. Ardkeen features in various records throughout the following two centuries, and was valued at ten marks (£6 13s 4d) in the taxation of Pope Nicholas in 1306 and listed among the possessions of Richard, Duke of York, as Earl of Ulster, in 1425. In 1621 the church was noted as being in ruins and remained so for over a century. During the 1750s, Francis Savage, whose family had lived at the adjacent tower house on Castle Hill during the middle ages and who (with his father Hugh) had built the new family residence of the ‘Dorn’ house a few hundred yards north of the church, decided to restore the church to serve as a private (Protestant) chapel for the Savage family of Ardkeen and their friends. To this end he raised money from local friends, secured a grant of £100 from the Irish Parliament and added £50 from his own coffers. During the restoration of the building the walls were heightened and harled, the windows on the south and east enlarged and given semi-circular arch heads. As well as this, the doorway was remodelled an given a similar arch, an eaves cornice and bellcote added, the interior renovated and a wall built enclosing the graveyard. By summer 1761 the church had been completely restored and Matthew Hazlett appointed as rector. The building remained in use until shortly after 1839 when in consequence of being unroofed by the Great Wind and further damaged in a subsequent storm, the site was abandoned. It was replaced by a new parish church, built in Kirkistown in 1847. A bell from the church inscribed ‘Henry Savage Esq., Rock Savage, 1784’ was noted as being preserved in Strangford House in 1966. Many of the head stones within the graveyard (most of which are eighteenth century) may be Roman Catholic. References- Primary sources 1 'Pontifica Hibernia: medieval papal chancery documents concerning Ireland, 640-1261', ed. Maurice P. Sheehy, Vol. I, doc. 59. 2 “Ecclesiastical taxation in the Dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore”, ed. William Reeves, in 'Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down Connor and Dromore', ed. William Reeves (Dublin 1847) p. 20. 3 Walter Harris 'The Ancient and Present State of The County of Down' (1744), p. 48. 4 'Taylor’s and Skinners’s Maps of the roads of Ireland' (Dublin 1777). [The ‘Dorn’ house built by Hugh Savage is marked on map 11.] 5 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Edition, 1834, Co. Down 25. 4 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.2. 6 PRONI VAL 1B/35 1st valuation, Ardkeen, c.1835. 7 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st revision, 1860, Co. Down 25. 8 PRONI 2nd valuation, Ardkeen, c.1863. Secondary sources 1 Rev. J. O’ Laverty 'Diocese of Down and Connor Ancient and Modern' (1878, reprinted 1980), Vol. I pp. 101-104. 2 G.F. Savage-Armstrong 'A genealogical history of the Savage family in Ulster, being a revision and enlargement of certain chapters of “The Savages of the Ards”' (London 1906), pp.337-55. 3 'Archaeological Survey of County Down' (Belfast, 1966), pp. 297-98. 4 R.S.J. Clarke (compiler) 'Gravestone Inscriptions Vol.13, County Down, Barony of Ards' (U.H.F. Belfast 1975), pp. 1-17. 5 Rev. Frank Bell ‘Ardkeen Parish Church’ in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.15' (1991), p. 23. 6 A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan 'Place-Names of Northern Ireland Vol. Two, County Down II- The Ards', pp. 8-10. 7 Patrick Breen ‘The Castle Hill’ in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.7' (1983) pp. 11-14 . 8 EHS SMR Dow 25:6.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruins of simple gabled church of medieval origin, restored in the eighteenth century but abandoned in c.1847. The accompanying graveyard has many 18th century headstones.

General Comments

Date of Survey

25 September 1997