Ancient Church Ruins of St. Cuthbert, Northern Ireland

About a half mile from Dunluce Castle, on Ballytober Road, are the ancient church ruins of St. Cuthbert’s, named for the Northumbrian monk.  Built on the site of a much older medieval church, it was completed in the late 1630s. 

Lady Katherine Manners, wife of the first Earl of Antrim Randall McDonnell and widow of the late Marquess of Buckingham, is credited with building, or at least completely renovating, the church.  Although both the Earl and Countess were Catholic, they provided a place of worship for the Protestant settlers in the area—a rarity for church tolerance in the region.

The church was originally thatched and the white ceiling, according to memoirs of the time, was painted with signs of the zodiac.  It served the Parish of Dunluce from 1622-1821 when the new Church of St. John the Baptist was built in Bushmills.  St. Cuthbert’s was then unroofed, as was the custom, and the contents sold at auction. 

The first known vicar of St. Cuthbert’s was a William Wallace from 1622-35, who served Dunluce, Portcaman, Ardclinis, and Derrykeighan, where he resided.  In 1634, it was recorded that he was contemplating moving to New England.

Using the headstones in the graveyard at St. Cuthbert’s, historians have pieced together some of the backgrounds of the inhabitants of the merchant village of Dunluce located near the castle, as well as the surrounding parish. 

The oldest readable stone is from 1630 and marks the burial site of two of the children of Walter Kidd, a merchant of Dunluce and Burgess of Irvine.  To read inscriptions on all the headstones, go here. (Scroll down to ‘Kid’ and read the actual inscription.)

It seems the Kidd family has kept records of their Irish ancestor and for a fascinating read on Walter and his family and profession, go to this genealogical document and scroll down to page 17.

The Ireland Genealogy Project Archives also has photos and texts of many of the stones in the cemetery.

La Girona banknote

Local folklore tells of sailors and noblemen buried in the open part of this cemetery to the south of the church in 1588.  They died when their ill-fated Spanish Armada Girona floundered off the coast near Dunluce at Port na Spaniagh (or the Bay of the Spanish).  Indeed, Earl Randall McDonnell mounted cannons taken from the wreckage on the Dunluce Castle parapets as well as possessed other artifacts from the ship.

Interestingly, the wreck of the Girona was simply a local tale told for 400 years until 1967 when Belgian diver and treasure hunter Robert Stenuit discovered the sunken warship off Lacada Point.

Another artifact at St. Cuthbert’s said to have come from the shipwreck was a muniment chest used for manuscripts and religious purposes, although it is not extant.

Note: The relics of the Northumberland monk St. Cuthbert (635-687 AD) now lie in Durham Cathedral where they were brought after the Viking raid in 793 on the monastery on Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the northern coast of England.

St. Cuthbert's Church near Dunluce Castle