Maghera old church, Carrigs Road, Carnacavill, Newcastle, Co Down

The site comprises the ruined remains of a church of probable 13th-century origin, alongside the stump of an Early Christian round tower. The church stands to the east of Carrigs Road, with the present Church of Ireland parish church immediately to the west, and the round tower to the northwest. The church ruin is roughly rectangular, measuring approximately 15 meters by 7.5 meters, and is constructed of rubble, set within a roughly circular rubble-walled enclosure. The west gable and north wall remain standing. The gable features a central pointed arch entrance, which was unblocked during conservation work in the 1970s. The north wall has a semicircular arched window at a high level. The church is surrounded by a graveyard containing at least two pre-Norman cross-carved stones, alongside later 18th and 19th-century headstones.

The round tower stump stands at the corner of a field to the northwest of the church. It largely collapsed in a storm around 1714, retaining a height of roughly 5.5 meters and featuring a hole in the southeast-facing masonry.

The church is believed to have been built in the 13th century, possibly replacing an earlier Christian church located nearer the round tower. The church was already in ruins by 1657, and the present church was erected in 1825. Following the 1714 storm, the tower’s masonry remained so well bonded that it lay as a hollow cylinder on the ground for some time. The church and round tower are now Historic Monuments in State Care.