[6] In his Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, William Reeves notes that several annals record the death of St Mochaoi of Nendrum at a variety of dates between 490 and 497.

When the name next occurs, it is as belonging to property of the see of Down, with which John de Courcy, in 1178, takes the liberty of making it over to the monks of an English abbey.

It would seem, however, that long ere this it held some tributary relation to the see of Down...[8]The English monks were Benedictines and founded a small cell on Mahee Island.

The location of Nendrum was then lost until it was rediscovered in 1844 by William Reeves, who visited the island searching for the church recorded in 1306 and recognized the remains of a round tower.

[11] The principal monastic remains which can now be seen are three concentric cashels (enclosures) of dry stone walling, but these were substantially rebuilt by Lawlor in the 1920s.

[3] The canonical sundial now seen at one corner of the ruined church was reconstructed from fragments found during the excavation of the site in 1924 and has been dated to about the year 900.

[14] An annual service is also held at the monastery by St. Mary's Parish, Comber, on Palm Sunday each year.

[15] Mahee Island is within Strangford Lough, a body of water which has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.