Movilla Abbey, Movilla Road, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23

Ruined remains of a medieval church situated on a high bank on the S side of the Movilla Road on the NE edge of Newtownards, with a large graveyard to the S. The ruins measure c.33m x 6m and are in split stone rubble. Much of the E and W gables are still standing. The E gable still retains the ‘outline’ of a large three light pointed arch window opening with tracery, but the opening itself is now blocked with a small narrow semicircular headed window inserted into the middle light. This narrow window is splayed ‘internally’. The W gable contains a pointed arch window, set at a higher level and with transoms with cusping. The N wall (which faces out onto the Movilla Road), has large sections which have been repaired in fairly recent times, with evidence of a now blocked doorway in the centre and a pair of small lancet windows to the E (left). Now propped up against the ‘inner’ side of the N wall are 8 medieval grave slabs, with the largest stone to the left with a Gaelic inscription (ÓRDO/DERTREND- ‘A prayer for Dertrend’), and probably Early Christian in origin. The other slabs are probably 13th century, with one (the second from the left) containing a carving of a pair of shears. Nothing remains of the S wall and within the former interior of the church are various gravestones dating from the 1600s onwards as well as a large rubble built tomb in the shape of a miniature gabled church (late nineteenth century).