Carrick Church

Carrick Church stands beside Carrick Lough in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, about one mile north-west of Derrygonnelly village. Built in 1483 by Baron Gilbert O’Flanagan II and his wife Margaret, it is a late medieval church of local stone. The O’Flanagans were powerful chieftains whose lands stretched across what is now the Barony of Magheraboy. Their stronghold lay at Baile Uí Fhlanagain on the shores of Carrick Lake. The church was raised in honour of God and Mary, a common dedication of the time. The church’s history is marked by violent events recorded in the Annals of Ulster. In 1528 two members of the family, Gilleece O’Flanagan and his son Turlough, were murdered inside the chapel on the same day by a kinsman, Patrick O’Flanagan. Gilbert II died in 1496 and Margaret, daughter of the Maguires of Fermanagh, was buried at Donegal Abbey. After the O’Flanagans lost power, the church remained in use until penal times. Today the roofless ruins stand within a graveyard where many 18th-century gravestones still bear legible inscriptions. The site was used for burials until about 1930 despite its ruinous state. Close by is Tobarnasuil, a holy well whose waters were once believed to cure eye ailments. In 2012 the Ulster Archaeological Heritage Society stabilised the masonry to halt further collapse. The church and graveyard remain Scheduled Historic Monuments in Aghamore townland.