On the 23 October 2000 , a local farmer offered a gift of land (approx. 9 acres) on which to build a monastery. After consideration and acceptance of this generous gift, encouraged by our Abbot General, we set about fundraising to cover our building costs on 21 March 2001, feast of St Benedict. The new monastery is the first Benedictine foundation to be made in Northern Ireland since monks from Chester came to Downpatrick in 1183 at the behest of John de Courcy. There was already a Bec connection then, since Chester had been founded by the famous French Abbey of Bec just a century previously at the instigation of Saint Anselm.