Mahee Island, County Down

Background

Off W coast of Strangford Lough, 9km SE of Comber

par:Tullynakill bar: Castlereagh Lower

Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, now reached over two causeways, bears the name of the founding saint of the early monastery now anglicised as Nendrum.  Mo Chaoi, a pet name for St Caolán, was mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick (ed. Stokes, p.40), first when the saint met him as a youth, Mochoa, herding pigs (and gave him baptism, tonsure, the gospels and a menistir, as needed by a priest) and later when God provided a crozier, recognising him as a bishop.  A later legend told how Mochaoi stood entranced for 150 years at the angelic song of a bird.  The monastery was an important early foundation, recorded in annal references to abbots, bishops and scribes from AD 496 to 917/74.  Four saints were associated with it in the Martyrology of Donegal: Crónán (Jan. 7), Mochumma (Jan. 31), Mochaoi (June 23), and Cuimmein (July 3), and it was the original centre of the parish of Tullynakill. The Tripartite Life places Mochaoi near Saul in Lecale, and the notes to Oengus’ Calendar of Irish saints locate the monastery in Loch Cuan, Strangford Lough (Féil. Oeng. 158). These notes also speculate on the meaning of the name, whether the island contains one hillock or nine.  Although surviving Irish sources often use the spelling with initial n, possibly originally prefixed by the word ‘in’, it seems the original name of the drumlin site was probably OIr. Oendruim, Mod. Ir. Aondroim meaning ‘one ridge’, as in the verse text of Oengus’ Calendar (June 23^rd, p.142):   in sab sochla sona / ó Óendruimm don-rema (‘May the famous happy champion from Óendruim protect us’).  It appears that the Anglo-Normans attempted to revive the monastery in the 12th century.  Reeves found a 13^th-century roll which copied charters of John de Courcy in which he granted in 1178 two-thirds of Nendrum to the monks there and in St Mary’s of York (EA 194), and one third to the Bishop of Down; while he gave the monks all of Gillanhari, in Duffren, possibly modern Ballyglighorn on the mainland (EA 191, British Museum Cotton Charters).  A document which claimed to list the Bishop of Down’s see lands in 1210 was probably drawn up in the 15th century, and said that Indrasaig Mac Cahuil, then ruling in Blawico (i.e. in Ui Bhlaithmheic, around Newtownards) gave to the bishop and the Church of Down the island of Nedron, with 4 other islands lying next to it.  Indrasaig also gave the bishop Balledrun, now Ballydrain, with 14 carucates of land.  The 1615 terrier says the Bishop of Down then held ‘Island Magee… three other islands…  Ballyadrean with 14 other towns’, and thus it seems that the 12^th-century monastic foundations did not flourish and all the parish had become bishop land (O’Laverty I 366).

The monastery of Antrim was originally called Oentreb, Aontreabh ‘one settlement’ (AD 822-1096), but when the spelling became Aondruim after 1490 (a disputed reference) , the spelling Noendruim for the Down foundation made the N a differentiating feature. It was recorded in ecclesiastical sources from 1179 to 1450 as Neddrum etc., with three islands in Loch Cuan spelled in 1202 as Scatra, Raynche and Crafne, and identified by Reeves as Scatrick, Ranish and Trasnagh (Reeves 1845/1902, 60-68, 16, 67).

However, the site and its original name had been lost, and from the 17^th century the island was usually referred to as part of the (Bishop’s) manor of Ballydrain (Reeves 1845/1902, 16-17).  Nevertheless, in 1844 it was rediscovered by Bishop Reeves who, with Guy Stone of Comber, recognised that a ‘lime kiln’ within a circular enclosure on Mahee Island was the round tower of the monastery (UJA ser. 2 viii = Reeves 1845/1902, 17-18).

References

KM, 2009; McKay, P. (2007): A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names, p. 104

Additional Information

Historical name form

Old Form	Ref. Date	Reference
Maghy, insul' de	1605	Inq. Ult. (Down) $2 Jac. I
Iland-Maghie, manor de Ballydreene al.	1617	Inq. Ult. (Down) $6 Jac. I
Oilén mo Chaoi	1617c	LCABuidhe 160 l.202
Iland Maghee	1622	Ulster Visit. Reeves 5
Magheoe	1622	Ulster Visit. Reeves 53
Islandmakee	1661	Trien. Visit. (Bramhall) 13
Inis Mochaoi	1989	GÉ 118
Inis Mochaoi "(St) Mochaoi's island"	1999	Dict. Ulst. PN 104
nAondroim, an eclipsed form of Aondroim "single ridge"	1999	Dict. Ulst. PN 104
Maghy, island of	1605	CPR Jas I 73b
Ilandmaghie	1616	CPR Jas I 327a
Ilandmaghie, otherwise Ballindreen	1616	CPR Jas I 327a
Iland Maghe	1625c	Raven Map Clandeboye 56
Machee-Isle	1744	Harris Hist. 154
Machee-Isle	1744	Harris Hist. 154

Barony

Castlereagh Lower

Parish

Tullynakill

Parish in 1851

Tullynakill

Townland

None

Place name ID

12162

Place name type

T