Founded by MacSwiney Banagh in the latter half of the 15th century as a Franciscan Third Order Regular friary, this religious community thrived for over a century before the friars were driven out following the Irish defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. Today, what remains of the church is a poignant reminder of Ireland’s turbulent past, though time and the elements have taken their toll on the structure.

The surviving church ruins, measuring approximately 20 metres by 6 metres internally, consist of a combined nave and chancel built from roughly coursed rubble and split stone. The east gable, which still stands nearly at its full height, features the remnants of an elegant two-light pointed window with tracery that once formed a vesica-shaped centrepiece above the lights. Various architectural details remain visible throughout the ruins, including wall presses, the footings of doorways with chamfered jambs, and evidence of a sedilia at the southern wall’s eastern end. Two blocked doorways in the northern wall suggest the church once connected to additional buildings, likely including a sacristy, though only minimal traces of these structures survive today.

The friary’s history continues beyond its walls, as several significant artefacts were relocated to St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Killybegs in 1868. Among these are a medieval tomb slab, now set against the church’s exterior western gable, and decorative stone capitals that found new life as part of a garden gate pier. The ruins themselves have seen various states of decay and repair; the western gable collapsed in 1907, and whilst some restoration work was undertaken about thirty years ago to rebuild sections and repoint the walls, the friary remains in precarious condition. Despite this fragility, or perhaps because of it, Fan an Charta Friary stands as a compelling testament to the religious communities that once flourished along Ireland’s rugged coastline.