Whiteabbey

Title

Whiteabbey

Also Known As

Deulacres, Deuleucres, Dieulacresse, Diex la Croisse, Druim La Croix, Druin la Croisse, Drum Cross, Duix Lacroisse, Dun le Cros, Dyex Lacroisse

Dates

Founded by ca. 1250; moved to Woodburn ca. 1326

Dedication

Holy Cross

Affiliation

Dryburgh

Medieval Diocese

Connor

Circary

Ireland

History

The abbey was a wealthy one and a place of pilgrimage owing to its possession of a relic of the True Cross. Whiteabbey was badly damaged during the Bruce Invasions of Ireland in the 1310s. In the 1320s, the brothers moved to Woodburn.

Some ruins were still extant up to the 1920s, when the last remaining part of the abbey, the ruins of the chapter house, were demolished.

Heads of Community

Abbots

John, fl. 1270s

Status

Abbey

Reference

GH, 204

MP, II: 134-136; III: 619

VW, 254

Bibliography

Bigger, Francis Joseph, and William J. Fennell. “The Whiteabbey in the Parish of Carnmoney, County Antrim.” Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, 5 (1899): 175–76. https://archive.org/details/ulsterjournalofa05ulstiala/page/174/mode/2up.

McNeill, T. E. “The Premonstratensian Houses of Carrickfergus, White Abbey and Woodburn.” Peritia 2 (1983): 265–66. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.Peri.3.47.

O’Regan, Christine. “2018:084 - Abbots Road, Whiteabbey, Antrim.” Excavations.ie, 2018. https://excavations.ie/report/2018/Antrim/0026430/.

Image Credit

Robert Welch, "The White Abbey, Belfast", ca. 1906.

Files

Collection

Ireland

Citation

“Whiteabbey,” A Premonstratensian Atlas, accessed October 16, 2026, https://yvonneseale.org/atlas/items/show/287.

Geolocation

Item Relations

This Item DependentOn Item: Dryburgh