St Bronagh
The village is in the Parish of Kilbroney, ('Cill' a Church and 'Broney' of Bronach/Bronagh). St. Bronagh is the Patron Saint of these parts ... an Abbess who lived in the 6th Century. St. Bronagh was a virgin of Glen Seich desertum. She set up a religious settlement in the 6th. century near Rostrevor where the ruins of an ancient church called after her are in the old graveyard of Kilbroney. Her convent was erected to help sailors cast up on the beach by a cruel sea. She is referred to in O'Cleary's Calendar of Irish Saints. Her feast day is 2nd April. Many of her relics can still be found in the area, especially in Kilbroney Graveyard on the Hilltown Road.
The graveyard is also the site of the recovery of an ancient St. Bronagh's Bell, lost for centuries and probably connected with the ancient church of St. Bronagh.
A strange story attaches to the bell. It is a genuine example of the earliest Christian bells known in Ireland and was the gift of Fergus, a young chieftain. The bell had been hung in the fork of a young oak tree near the convent. The convent was subsequently destroyed but the bell remained hidden. For several centuries it was heard to toll through the valley on certain nights and this was explained by many stories of banshees and leprechuans. Then it became silent.
In 1888 a giant oak fell in Kilbroney churchyard and when it was cut up the bell was found in the hollow trunk. It has been restored and is in use as an altar bell in Rostrevor Catholic Church. Some antiquarians declare its value to be priceless.
