Baldongan Church

Baldongan Church, also called Baldungan Castle, is an ancient church and National Monument in Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland.LocationBaldongan Church lies in a rural part of north County Dublin, halfway between Skerries and Lusk and 2.4km from the seashore.HistoryFirst churchAn earlier church at the site was granted to the Priory of St Mary at Kilbixy in 1190.CastleBaldongan was originally the site of a fortified church, rectangular in plan with towers on each corner, constructed by the Knights Templar in the 13th century on the site of an ancient dún.When the Templars were suppressed in 1313 the Archbishop of Dublin acquired Baldongan, and in 1350 Sir Reginald de Barnwall obtained it in trust from the Archbishop. Peter Trevers, a leading judge, owned it in the 1460s. It later passed to the de Bermingham family and then as a marriage settlement to the St. Lawrences (Lords of Howth) in 1508.Confederate forces held the castle until June 1642 when Parliamentary forces under a Colonel Trafford breached the walls. The garrison of 200 men were put to death except for two priests, who were tortured on the rack and deported to France.