Baldongan Church

Baldongan Church
Túr Bhaile Donnagáin
Baldongan Church
53.55316°N 6.128776°W / 53.55316; -6.128776
Location	Baldongan Close, Skerries, County Fingal
Country	Ireland
Denomination	Pre-Reformation Catholic
History
Founded	13th century
Architecture
Style	Norman
Years built	13th century
Specifications
Length	34 m (112 ft)
Width	7.5 m (25 ft)
Height	21 m (69 ft)
Materials	stone
Administration
Diocese	Dublin
Designations National monument of Ireland

Another view of Baldongan

Baldongan Church, also called Baldungan Castle, is an ancient church and National Monument in Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland.

Location

Baldongan Church lies in a rural part of north County Dublin (modern County Fingal), halfway between Skerries and Lusk and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the seashore.

History

First church

An earlier church at the site was granted to the Priory of St Mary at Kilbixy in 1190.

Castle

Baldongan was originally the site of a fortified church, rectangular in plan with towers on each corner, constructed by the Knights Templar in the 13th century on the site of an ancient dún.

When the Templars were suppressed in 1313 the Archbishop of Dublin acquired Baldongan, and in 1350 Sir Reginald de Barnwall obtained it in trust from the Archbishop. Peter Trevers, a leading judge, owned it in the 1460s. It later passed to the de Bermingham family and then as a marriage settlement to the St. Lawrences (Lords of Howth) in 1508.

Confederate forces held the castle until June 1642 when Parliamentary forces under a Colonel Trafford breached the walls. The garrison of 200 men were put to death except for two priests, who were tortured on the rack and deported to France.

A nearby field is called the "Nuns Stood", supposedly the site from where local nuns watched the destruction of the castle — however, there is no record of any convent ever having been nearby.

Church

The later church was built in the 15th century and was furnished with a 21 metre high fortified bell tower. The tower is 6.7 m (22 ft) square.