A medieval ruin with a sea view
St Catherine’s is a small medieval church, roofless and quiet, set in a walled graveyard on the Portrane headland with the water and Lambay Island filling the view to the east. It won’t take you an hour. What it has going for it is the setting and a couple of details most visitors walk straight past, so the trick is to slow down and look at the tower.
This is a minor site, not a day out in itself. Treat it as a stop on a coast walk rather than a special trip, and it earns its place – ten quiet minutes among old stones with the sea at your back.
The tower
The best of the church is its west tower, and specifically the stepped battlements along the top, a form typical of the fifteenth century. Undivided nave and chancel run west of it. Two things reward a close look: set into two of the tower walls are small carved heads, and on the ground floor a possible bullaun stone was identified in 1992 – a shallow basin in the stone. Bullauns carry old healing folklore; the tradition here was that women could ‘cure’ the sick by rolling the stones. Whether the basin was ever used that way is anyone’s guess, but it is the oldest, oddest thing in the building.
History
The church was originally dedicated to St Canice and later renamed for St Catherine. The Normans founded it in the fourteenth century, and the earliest reference to a church here comes in the Crede Mihi rolls of 1212–25. After the dissolution of the monasteries the nuns of Grace Dieu kept the rectory of Portrane until 1577.
In 2021 Fingal County Council carried out conservation work on the church, and an archaeological dig before lighting was installed on the site turned up medieval and post-medieval pottery along with fragments of flint and shell – small evidence of how long people have used this corner of the headland.
The graveyard
The walled cemetery holds the Evans family of Portrane Demesne – Hampden, Margaret, George and Sophia are all buried here – whose plots are the more elaborate among the weathered markers. Reading the stones gives you a rough social history of the townland, from clergy to the landed family whose house once stood nearby.
Practical information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | Open daily during daylight hours. The site is unlit after dark. |
| Parking | A small lay-by beside the churchyard entrance; free. |
| Access | The graveyard is fairly level and mostly navigable; the stone steps into the tower are not suitable for wheelchairs or buggies. |
| Facilities | None on site. Basic shops and amenities are in Portrane village, a short walk south. |
Getting there The church sits off the R132, roughly 20 minutes north of Dublin city centre. Dublin Bus serves Portrane; from the village it is a few minutes’ walk to the walled entrance on the lane.
Nearby Fold the visit into the Donabate–Portrane Heritage Trail, which strings together several sites along the peninsula. A short drive north brings you to Ardgillan Castle and its gardens, and on to Balbriggan for food and supplies.
Come in the late afternoon, when the low light catches the limestone and the bay, and bring binoculars – the cliffs of Lambay draw a lot of seabirds, and they are the real show once you’ve looked your fill at the tower.