Maghera Churches and Round Tower

Maghera Churches and Round Tower is an ecclesiastical site in Maghera, County Down. It consists of the ruins of a 13th Century church (Maghera Old Church), Maghera Parish Church (built in 1825) and the stump of a 10th Century round tower. It is also the site of a monastery founded by St. Donard in the 6th century, and its graveyard confirms evidence that it was an early ecclesiastical site. Together the old church, round tower, and graveyard are a scheduled monument and monument in state care, referred to as "Maghera Church and Round Tower". The church built in 1825 is a functional Church of Ireland church and a listed building. The site is built on a rath, which gave rise to Maghera's original name ‘Rathmurbhuilg’, which means ‘the rath at the sea wall’. Over the centuries the site was recorded variously as Portmurbhuilg, Rath, and Rathra, before settling on Maghera in the early 17th century.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).