Welcome to the oldest Christian site in the city. It was on this spot in 543 that Columba built his first and most beloved abbey in Ireland and changed the face of the history of Britain.

The almost triangular shape of St. Augustine’s churchyard sits in half an acre and dovetails perfectly between the historic City Walls and Palace Street.

The shape has been the same since early 17C, possibly longer, and was once known as God’s Little Acre, indicating a much larger churchyard in earlier times.

History hangs heavy around the graveyard of the ‘Little Church on the Walls’ and it is known that one of the last High Kings of Ireland, Muircertach Mac Lochlainn was ‘honourably interred’ at the Dub Regles (Black Church) in 1196.

A further pointer to the antiquity of the churchyard was uncovered in September 1929, when human bones were found, believed to be those of monks from the Augustinian Abbey of the 13C.

Two Bishops from the early Plantation of Ulster, Dr. Tanner and Dr. Downham were buried in the graveyard in 1615 and 1634 respectively.

The ravages of time have taken their toll on the gravestones but those that are legible have been recorded and some of the stones have been placed upright against the South Wall, to protect and preserve them for future generations.