Inch Abbey
{{Short description|Ruined monastery in County Down, Northern Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Coord|54.3366178|-5.7295675|display=title}}
File:Inch Abbey (geograph 183149).jpg
File:Inch Abbey sign, Downpatrick, February 2010.JPG
Inch Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery on the outskirts of Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland.
By the year 800 a monastery existed at this location.{{cite book |last=Meehan |first=Cary |date=2004 |title=Sacred Ireland |url= |location=Somerset |publisher=Gothic Image Publications |page=217|isbn=0 906362 43 1 |access-date=}} Its name is derived from the Irish word inis, meaning 'island', referring to the fact that the monastery was originally surrounded by the River Quoile.
The present day ruins were founded by Anglo-Norman John de Courcy in the twelfth century{{cite web |title=Inch Abbey |url=https://discovernorthernireland.com/travel-trade/experience/inch-abbey-p675371 |publisher=Tourism Northern Ireland|access-date=11 June 2021}} at the site of the previous monastery which had operated from the 9th until earlier in the 12th century.{{cite web |title=Cistercian Abbeys: INCH |url=https://www.dhi.ac.uk/cistercians/abbeys/inch.php |website=The Cistercians in Yorkshire Project |access-date=11 June 2021}} One 12th century romanesque style carved stone survives at the site.Meehan, pg. 217. De Courcy established the monastery as penance for his destruction of Erenagh Abbey in 1177.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dhi.ac.uk/cistercians/abbeys/erenagh.php|title = Home page of the Cistercians in Yorkshire Project}}
It is served by Inch Abbey railway station, which is operated by the Downpatrick and County Down Railway.{{Cite web|url=https://www.downrail.co.uk/about-us/downpatrick-co-down-railway/|title = Downpatrick & County Down Railway}}