The Yellow Steeple and St Mary's Abbey
About
The Yellow Steeple is the tall broken tower on the ridge across the river from the castle, and it is the tallest thing in Trim by a distance: you pick it up from the Athboy road, from the Dublin road and from the top of the keep. It is what is left of the bell tower of St Mary's Augustinian Abbey, and its east face fell or was pulled down in the seventeenth century, which is why it reads as a jagged blade rather than a tower. The abbey it belonged to held a wooden statue known as Our Lady of Trim that drew pilgrims from the late fourteenth century until the Reformation, and Talbot Castle, the fifteenth-century fortified house immediately beside it, later served as a school where Jonathan Swift's connection to the town began. The tower is not open and cannot be climbed. You look at it from the ridge, from the abbey field or from across the water, and the best light on the stone is in the evening, which is where the name comes from.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓The tallest structure in Trim, visible for kilometres
- ✓Talbot Castle, the fifteenth-century fortified house beside it
- ✓The view back across the Boyne to the castle keep
- ✓Free and open ground, no ticket and no gate
Tips
- →The tower itself is closed and cannot be entered or climbed. This is a look-at, not a go-in.
- →The evening light on the stone is what gave the steeple its name, so leave it late in the day if you can.
- →It sits on the north bank, so combine it with the walk down to the Sheep Gate rather than treating it as a separate trip.
Best Season
More Attraction Activities
Trim Castle
The largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, with free open grounds in the middle of town and a cruciform keep you can only see on an OPW guided tour.
Newtown Trim and the Priory of St John the Baptist
The thirteenth-century Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Priory of St John the Baptist and one of Ireland's oldest bridges, a mile downriver from the castle.
St Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Ireland)
The Church of Ireland cathedral on Loman Street, with a medieval west tower, a Binns organ and a Burne-Jones window the parish calls his only early work in Ireland.