monastic sites around south antrim

A monastic settlement was founded on the island, maybe as far back as the 5th Century, by St Thaddeus who is buried there. The settlement continued until the middle of the 16th Century and the Church acted as Parish Church until its burning in the early years of the Ulster Plantation. It is known that the Church was in ruin by the year 1603 but in the troubled year of 1798 many women and children were forced to take shelter on the islands of Lough Beg. Mass was often celebrated within the " r...