Bannow Bay and St Marys Church

The Normans built a settlement here at Bannow just a few hundred metres from the site of the first landing of Norman forces in Ireland.

The church in the graveyard here is dedicated to St. Mary and was standing here by the year 1200. It is the only visible surviving evidence of the medieval town of Bannow.

Where It All Began
In May 1169 a force of about 400 Norman knights, archers and men-at-arms landed on the sandy shores of Bannow Island. They were met by Irish warriors loyal to Diarmuid McMurrough, the deposed King of Leinster, who had requested the aid of the Normans to regain his kingdom. The combined army quickly marched to the Norse town of Wexford where, after a short siege, they defeated the descendants of the Vikings who had founded the port and settlement there.

The Birth of a Norman Town
Over the next 100 years a new Norman town grew up here at Bannow. The only visible remnant of this historic town is the church named after St. Mary.

Set around St. Mary’s Church the town of Bannow had six streets of thatched houses and a small castle as well as a port sheltered from winter storms behind this headland. A water mill ground flour for the needs of the local community. Rent returns suggest that around 160 families lived here in the year 1300.

The Church
Although roofless, St. Mary’s Church is a fine example of a ‘nave and chancel’, or two-roomed, medieval church. The church also has a crenellated, or battlemented wall-top and ornate funerary carvings inside.