Ardkeen Old Church, Castle Hill, Rowreagh Road, Ardkeen, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1A?

Ardkeen Old Church is the roofless ruin of a simple rectangular gabled church situated close to the shore of an inlet on the eastern side of Strangford Lough, on the southern side of Castle Hill near Kircubbin, County Down.

The building is constructed in split stone random rubble with some rough dressing and quoins, measuring approximately 18 metres by 8.5 metres. It is of medieval origin, probably dating to the early thirteenth century, though it was heightened and restored around 1761. The structure is now in poor condition and heavily overgrown.

The north side has evidence of a now blocked doorway to the left, with a small lancet opening further to the right. The south side shows traces of three large semicircular arch windows, now blocked. The western gable features a centred semicircular arched doorway, now partly blocked, with the trace of a small semicircular arched opening above it, completely blocked. The eastern gable retains the trace of a large semicircular arch window, also blocked. Sandstone eaves cornice runs along the north and south sides.

The church was first mentioned in a papal document of 1204 as "ecclesiam de Arkien". It remains uncertain whether the actual structure was built following the Norman arrival in 1177-78 or refers to a much older foundation that they appropriated. Ardkeen features in various records over the following two centuries, valued at ten marks in the papal taxation of 1306 and listed among the possessions of Richard, Duke of York, as Earl of Ulster, in 1425. The church was noted as ruined in 1621 and remained so for over a century.

During the 1750s, Francis Savage, whose family had occupied the adjacent tower house on Castle Hill during the Middle Ages and had built the family residence of the 'Dorn' house a few hundred yards to the north, decided to restore the church as a private Protestant chapel for the Savage family and their friends. He raised funds from local sources, secured a grant of £100 from the Irish Parliament and contributed £50 from his own coffers. The restoration involved heightening and harling the walls, enlarging the south and east windows with semicircular arch heads, remodelling the doorway with a similar arch, adding an eaves cornice and bellcote, renovating the interior, and constructing a wall to enclose the graveyard. By summer 1761 the restoration was complete and Matthew Hazlett was appointed rector. The building remained in use until shortly after 1839, when it was unroofed by the Great Wind and further damaged in a subsequent storm, leading to its abandonment. It was replaced by a new parish church built in Kirkistown in 1847. A bell inscribed "Henry Savage Esq., Rock Savage, 1784" was noted as being preserved in Strangford House in 1966.

The church is surrounded by a small graveyard enclosed on all sides by a rubble wall. The graveyard contains many headstones dating back to 1729, predominantly from the eighteenth century. Savage family grave slabs within the church walls bear an earliest date of 1649. A narrow medieval stone with an incised cross has been placed against the interior east wall. Many of the headstones may be Roman Catholic in origin.