PARISH HISTORY

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PRE-CHRISTIAN PERIOD.

Long before there was a parish of Ramoan and even before the coming of Christianity to Ireland the port of Ballycastle or Port Brittas as it was more commonly called, was connected with several of the great legends of lreland e.g. the story of the Children of Lir, who had been turned into swans and spent a lengthy sojourn in the stormy waters of the Sea of Moyle; and it was at Carraig Uisneach, the rock at the end of Ballycastle strand, that Deirdre and the Sons of Uisneach landed on their return from exile in Scotland; and at Doonfin in Glenshesk Finn MacCool’s favourite hound, Bran, was mistakenly slain.

ST PATRICK.

St Patrick was no stranger to the area. No doubt when he herded the swine for Chieftain Milchu on the top of Slemish he had frequently looked in this direction hoping to see a ship which would take him back home. The founding of the church of Ramoan by St Patrick circa 454 A.D. is recorded in the Tripartite Life of the saint

“He founded Rathmodhain [Ramoan] and left the priest Erclach in it.” St Erclach or Erclasius was a disciple of St Patrick and his festival was held on 3rd March. Colgan describes the church of Ramoan as being “in regione of Dalriadae Carthrugia dicta, et tn Deconatu de Tuashceart” i.e. “in the region of Dalriada Called Carey [the Barony of Carey], and in the Deanery of Tuaisceart”. Little is Known about St Erclasius but the site of his church may still be seen in Old Ramoan cemetery at the junction of the Novally and Whitehall roads. St Patrick founded another Church in the parish at Drumenia and placed Enan in charge of it, hence the name Drumenia or Drumenan. Enan was said to be the son of Modhain, the local chieftain, whose residence was known as Rath Modhain or Modhain’s Rath, hence the name Ramoan.

DRUMENIA.

Reeves elaborates on Drumeeny: “In the townland of Drumeeny, in Glenshesk, a little west of the river which bounds the parish, is a gentle eminence, on which are the remains of an ancient chapel, 28 feet 9 inches long and 15 feet wide in the clear. The walls are 10 feet high and 3 feet thick. There seems to have been a narrow window in the east gable, as also in the north wall, near the altar end, and in the south wall. The font, together with the dressed sandstone quoins, was carried away to a field at some distance. About three perches south was a burying ground, locally called Kileenan, which was long disused and is now under cultivation ... this church is very probably the “Ecclesia de Druim-lndich” which the Tripartite Life of St Patrick states to have been founded by him in the region of Carthrugia [Carey], and to have been placed under the care of St Enan. (Trias Thaum, p. 142). This saint seems to have been the person who is styled in the Calendar of Marian Gorman “Enanus egregius, diuturnae quietis, et Muadani filius” and from whose father, Muadhan, the parish church derived the name Rath-Mudhain. (Trias Thaum. p.I 82; Acta SS. p.747.) The festival of St Enan was observed on 25th March under which day the name is noticed by Colgan. The chapel above described is vulgarly called Gobbin’s Heir’s Castle. It is so termed in the Parochial Survey (Vol.ii. p.506;) and even on the Ordnance Maps - both Townland and Index - it bears the same name. The first two words are evidently acorruption of Goban Saor (Goban the builder), the title of the celebrated architect to whose skill the traditions of the country ascribe the erection of so many churches and round towers but the term Castle is a complete perversion, as every feature of the spot is indicative of an ecclesiastical character.”

It is remarkable that St Patrick founded two churches within the parish of Ramoan and one in the adjoining parish of Culfeightrin at Magherintemple.

KILLNACRUE

Reeves also refers to the standing stone opposite Ulster Quarries on the road from Ballycastle to Armoy: “In the townland of Turraloskin was an old cemetery, called Killnacrue, where were the ruins of a small chapel, and about seven yards from them, a stone 51/2feet high, called the priest’s stone, which bore the figure of a cross”. Cill-na-cru - the horse shoe church or graveyard, according to O’Laverty, contained about a rood of ground and was surrounded by a broad wall of dry stones. The stone on which the cross is inscribed is to the south side of the site of the church. Between the church and the cross stood the supposed ruins of three altars, each one about a yard square on the top.

We are told that when St Patrick came to north Antrim he found it parcelled out among the twelve sons of Ere, the local chieftain, who was the great grandson of Cairbre Riada, from whom derived the name Dalriada (Riada’s territory). The youngest of the sons, Fergus, received the saint with kindness and received his special blessing. Fergus then set out circa 475 A.D. from Port Brittas, in the parish of Ramoan, with his brothers, Angus and Loarne, and a host of followers, to found the colony of Scottish Dalriada. Among the descendants of these Antrim men was Kenneth McAlpine who managed to unite the Picts and Scots.

PRIORY AT DRUMAWILLAN.

Archdall in his Monasticon Hibernicum writes about a priory in the parish of Ramoan: “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; which being done the place was called Ocymild, and Richard was appointed the first prior. It was thus mentioned in the Monasticon Anglicanum; but M. Allemande changes the name to Drymild and conjectures that it is in this county [Antrim]. If Drymild be the true reading we may with some probability suppose it to be Drumawillan, near Ballycastle.” All traces of this priory have disappeared but it may be that it was on the site of this old priory that Mass was celebrated during the 18th century (at William McClarty’s garden at the Walkmill.)

THE TAXATION OF POPE NICHOLAS IV

Edward I, King of England, by promising to undertake an expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land obtained from the Pope the tenths of all the benifices of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Pope Nicholas IV, in March 1291, addressed a letter to the collectors of Ireland that the valuation should be “juxta veram existimationem”. The tax was to continue for six years and all ecclesiastics were to be subject to it except the Templars and Hospitallers whose services and losses in Palestine entitled them to an exemption. This taxation, which does not appear to have been completely carried out, was renewed in 1306. The importance of this document is that it preserves the names and represents the fiscal position of the churches in the year 1306 which was to change two hundred and fifty years later when many of the churches were taken over after the Reformation. In the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV the church of Ramoan was valued at £10-0s-0d.

BUNAMARGY FRIARY.

About the year 1485 Rory McQuillan introduced the Franciscans to the area and built a friary for them at Bunamargy. It was not unusual for Norman lords to found Monasteries or friaries and the McQuillans were said to be of Norman descent. As conquerors and successors of the McQuillans, the MacDonnells assumed the patronage of Bunamargy and made it their burial-place, and so it came to be associated with their name. The Suppression of the Monasteries less than sixty years after the founding of the Friary should have meant the closing of Bunamargy but as Biggar points out it did not immediately affect Bunamargy: “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 the 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 Macdonnells had embraced the reformed faith, although during that time their existence had been checkered and filled with much adversity, and their numbers had dwindled to insignificance.”

THE FRIARY BURNED BY THE MACDONNELLS

In spite of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Friars continued their work but it cannot have been easy for them for the Friary was practically destroyed by the MacDonnells. In January 1584 the English, under Sir John Perrott, were waging war on the MacDonnells. They had taken Dunluce Castle and were now at Ballycastle. Captain Carlisle and Captain Warren had their horses lodged in the chapel of Bunamargy Friary, with two companies encamped close by. Sir William Stanley wrote an account of what happened: “About 11 of the clock on the same night there came certain troops of Scots on foot and about six horsemen with them, who had upon their staves lighted wads, whereby they suddenly set the roof of the chapel being thatched on fire.” However the Friary was subsequently rebuilt and occupied by the friars again. As for Sir William Stanley he led an army to the Continent and became a Catholic and in the city of Mechlin he acted as a gracious host to his former enemies the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell who had fled from Ireland in September 1607.

ST COLMCILLE’S CROSS

During the campaign against the MacDonnells Sir John Perrott plundered Dunluce and Dunaneanie Castles and distributed the spoils to his friends. He sent an unusual present to Lord Burghley which had been taken from Sorley Boy MacDonnell’s household treasures. Perrott’s letter accompanying the gift is as follows: “And for a token I have sent you Holy Colmkill’s Cross,a god of great veneration with Sorley Boy and all Ulster, for so great was his (Colmkill’s) grace, he thought himself happy that could get a kiss of the said cross. I send him unto you, that when you have made some sacrifice to him according to the disposition you bear to idolatry, you may, if you please bestow him on my good Lady Walsyngham or my Lady Sydney, to wear as a jewel of weight and bigness, and not of price and goodness, upon some solemn feast or triumph day at court.” Reeves writes in 1857: “This altar-cross is not now known to exist, but from the description it would seem that it was cased in metal, and adorned with crystal bosses, like the Cross of Cong preserved in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.”