Malahide Abbey ruins stand adjacent to the Castle. Their size suggest that it was no private oratory or chapel. The surrounding cemetery would indicate that it probably served the people of Malahide from the 12th to 16th Century. In 1630, the Abbey was stated to be in a ruinous condition. When Cromwell installed Myles Corbet in Malahide Castle for a brief period, tradition has it that Corbet used the Abbey as stables and stripped the lead off the roof to make bullets. The present structure consists of a late fifteenth-century nave and a sixteenth-century chancel. The east wall of the chancel features a fine three-light window whilst the west gable of the nave is surmounted by a three-arched bell turret with an access stairs and a triple window beneath. It is likely the bells were fixed and the bell-ringer climbed the stairs and sat or stood beneath the bells and struck them with a hammer. Within the Abbey is the fine deeply carved 16th. Century tomb of Maud Plunkett who was “maid, wife and widow” on the one day, her husband having been killed in battle on their wedding day. On the North-East angle of the Abbey opposite the Avoca entrance may be seen a Sheela-na-gig, a grotesque stone carving, whose function it was to warn the faithful of the terrible results of sin and excess. Generations of Talbots lie buried in the surrounding cemetery and the last local burial took place here in 1960.