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A short distance out of the town on the Cushendall road is Bonamargie Friary, one of the finest ruins along the north coast. Originally thatched, the ruins consist of a chapel, vaults, gatehouse, cloisters, living quarters and a graveyard. Some accounts date this Third Order Franciscan Friary to around 1500 but it was perhaps built slightly earlier around the 1480s. The Franciscans first arrived in Ireland in 1226 and over a decade or so had created such an impression that many local rulers provided for them in their territories and funded the building of friaries. For the first hundred years the Franciscans remained relatively small due to many factors including politics, warfare and the Black Death. In the late thirteenth century the Third Order was founded in Ireland. The Order flourished due in part to the secular nature of Gaelic rule at the time, certainly the dominance of that rule in the north and west after the Norman conquest aided their protection and spread.
The MacQuillen family who can be trace to the Norman de Mandevilles, are accredited with the founding of Bonamargie Friary, it later came into the possession of the MacDonnells when Sorley Boy MacDonnell defeated the MacQuillens in a battle 1558 and effectively became ' Lord of the Route'. Several of the Earls of Ulster are interred in the Friary including Sorley Boy MacDonnell. |