A first look at archaeological artefacts from the Four Masters site in Bundoran

With the recent rediscovery of Franciscan historical records establishing that The Annals of the Four Masters were created at the Bundrowes friary of refuge in Magheracar, Bundoran, archaeological artefacts have been discovered at the historic Four Masters site.

READ NEXT: In Pictures: Fantastic turnout for fundraising tractor and lorry run in Ballintra

With the kind permission of Mr Gregory Daly, local Bundoran historian, Seanie Carty recently shared photographs on Where Erne, Drowes and Duff meet the sea of archaeological artefacts discovered at the old church site and burial ground in The Ross, Magheracar. Thanks to Mr. Daly, three of these artefacts were originally examined by one of Ireland’s leading archaeologists, Christiaan Corlett of the National Monuments Service in 1999.

The first artefact is an “architectural fragment (sandstone)” that “features pronounced ribbed moulding which probably formed part of the window or door of a late 12th- / early 13th-century church.” This artefact suggests that the friary of refuge was founded on an earlier church site.

The second artefact is a “fragment of a rotary quern” and the third artefact is a “stone basin” that “consists of an ovoid sandstone block with an elongated, oval basin.” The stone basin “may be a font or stoup associated with a church.”

While “the architectural fragment quite clearly belongs to a late 12th- or early 13th-century church”, the rotary quern and the stone basin “would be perfectly at home within the assemblages from other church sites.”

Within the local vicinity of the church site, Seanie Carty of Donegal Bay Builders discovered well dressed stone on several old ruined buildings. These stones could be the masonry remains of the Bundrowes friary of refuge.

Additionally, three first hand Franciscan accounts describing the Bundrowes friary of refuge appear to align with The Ross site in Magheracar, Bundoran.

The first account is from Fr. Donagh Mooney in 1617. He said that he and the friars fled Donegal Town by boat in the early 1600s. He described that the friars now live as a community: “in locis magis tutis” (in safer places) and “in locis subobscuris” (in somewhat hidden places) in Bundrowes.

The second account is from Fr. Francis Matthews in 1629. He said that the friars built their own dwelling in Bundrowes: “fratres, erecto sibi in vicinia domicilio.”

The third account is from Mícheál Ó Cléirigh's own brother, Fr. Bernard Ó Cléirigh, The Guardian of the Convent of Donegal at Bundrowes in 1636. In the year that the Annals were completed, Fr. Bernard said that they worked and wrote: “in deserto nostra mansionis” (in the hermitage of our dwelling). The word “deserto” derives from the Latin “desertum”, meaning a place of retreat or a hermitage. In an Irish ecclesiastical context, a desertum indicates a “Dísert”, a monastic or hermitage site.

Four-hundred yards above the Drowes River, the raised, wooded Ross church site was also historically known as “Dísert Stealla”, named after the nearby holy well “Tobar na stealla” (The Well of the Stars). Fr. Paddy Gallagher noted in his book, Where Erne and Drowes meet the sea (1961) that Tobar na stealla “was associated with the friars.”

These three Franciscan descriptions along with the artefacts pinpoint the Bundrowes friary of refuge in The Ross area. The Ross was a safe place, it was somewhat hidden, and it was here that the friars of The Convent of Donegal at Bundrowes built their own dwelling in their humble hermitage.

Reflecting on this first look of the Four Masters archaeology and the first hand Franciscan accounts of the refuge site of Bundrowes friary – the Irish historical community can now begin to clearly perceive more authenticated insight into where Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and his fellow scribes created the greatest book of Irish history.