PROCEEDINGS. 



SUMMER PROGRAMME. 

 EXCURSIONS, 



1 8 May. 



GREYABBEY. 



On Saturday, 18 May, the first excursion of the season was 

 held, when the Club paid a visit to the old Cistercian Monas- 

 tery at Greyabbey. A pleasant morning found a party of 60 

 collected at the Linen Hall Library at 10 a.m., and a start was 

 made at once in brakes. Passing by Dundonald, Newtownards, 

 and other places of interest, the first halt was made at Mount- 

 stewart, the seat of the Marquis of Londonderry. Here the 

 fine mansion was thrown open to the members, after which the 

 cromleac occupied the attention of the party, and was freely 

 photographed. This cromleac, as W. Gray, M.R.I.A., pointed 

 out, was once the centre of a large tumulus, which has since 

 disappeared, leaving only its core. Having examined this 

 relic, the party proceeded to Greyabbey. This religious house 

 was founded, occording to the Monasticon Hibernicon, by Lady 

 de Courcy, the wife of John de Courcy, and daughter of the 

 King of Man, and was settled by Cistercian Monks from Holm 

 Cultram, in Cumberland. Here Lady de Courcy took up her 

 abode prior to her death ; tradition says she built it in accord- 

 ance with a vow made to the Blessed Virgin during a terrible 

 hurricane at sea. We learn from the Montgomery MSS. that 

 Sir Brian MacFelim O'Neill, in anger at Queen Elizabeth giv- 

 ing his lands to Sir Thomas Smith, burnt down the abbey, 



