Communities/provenance: shows the status and communities existing at each establishment, together with such dates as have been established as well as the fate of the establishment after dissolution, and the current status of the site.
Formal name or dedication: shows the formal name of the establishment or the person in whose name the church is dedicated, where known.
Alternative names: some of the establishments have had alternative names over the course of time. In order to assist in text-searching such alternatives in name or spelling have been provided.
Abbreviations and Key
The sites listed are ruins or fragmentary remains unless indicated thus:
*
current monastic function
+
current non-monastic ecclesiastic function
^
current non-ecclesiastic function
=
remains incorporated into later structure
#
no identifiable trace of the monastic foundation remains
~
exact site of monastic foundation unknown
ø
possibly no such monastic foundation at location
¤
no such monastic foundation
≈
identification ambiguous or confused
Locations with names in italics indicate probable duplication (misidentification with another location) or non-existent foundations (either erroneous reference or proposed foundation never implemented).
early monastic site, traditionally founded c.546 by St Colmcille, but probably c.590 by Fiachra mac Ciárain mac Ainmerech mac Sétna; St Augustine's C.I. Church or St Columb's Church are cited as alternative possible locations of the monastery
Daire-calgach; Doire-Choluim-Chille; Daire Duib-recles; Cella Nigra
Augustinian Canons Regular — Arroasian — affiliated to SS Peter & Paul, Armagh; founded c.1233?; reportedly in very poor state of repair by 1411, due to warfare and adversity; churches desecrated and community expelled 1566; under occupation by English troops under Colonel Edward Randolph; restored? canons possibly briefly returned; dissolved 1576?; reoccupied by the English; Augustinian Friars refounded c.1643
Cella Nigra
Derry Priory
Cistercian nuns founded 1218; dissolved 1512
Derry Franciscan Priory
purported foundation of Franciscan Friars; (in 1609 the commissioners erroneously took the ruins of the Blackfriars house (see immediately below) to be Franciscan)
Derry — St Dominic's Priory
spurious accounts of earlier Dominican foundation; Dominican Friars founded 1274; dissolved 1576; briefly restored?
St Dominic
Desertmartin Monastery
early monastic site, apparently founded by a member of the O'Lynn family (suggested by the name Mainister O'Fhloinn); erenaghs until 16th century
Augustinian Canons Regular — Arroasian? founded after 1140? (after 1138?), purportedly by the O'Cahan family; dissolved before 1603; round tower incorporated into church, but collapsed c.1784
St Mary
Errigal Monastery
early monastic site, purportedly founded 6th century by St Colmcille; destroyed by Norsemen 9th century; erenaghs until 16th/17th century
Cistercian monks — from Morimond, France founded 1218; dissolved before 1600; granted to the London Companies (Merchant Taylors) authorities for the plantation of Derry; house named 'Glebe House' built on site of claustral buildings c.1770; scant remains of monastic church incorporated into St Mary's C.I. parish church, built on site
early monastic site, founded 6th century by St Lurach; plundeded by the Norsemen 832; church burnt 1135; diocesan cathedral see transferred from Ardstraw c.1152; see transferred to Derry 1254
^William Cobbett. List of abbeys, priories, nunneries, hospitals, and other religious foundations in England and Wales and in Ireland: confiscated, seized on, or alienated, by the Protestant "Reformation" sovereigns and Parliaments.
^ ab"New Page 1". The Last Coleraine Militia. 28 June 1919. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
^Morrison, A. K; Lytle, S. D; Hipson, Alexander (1902). "Some Notes on the Parish of Maghera and Neighbourhood, in the County of Derry". Ulster Journal of Archaeology. 8 (3): 128–131. JSTOR20566091.