Skryne Church, church building in County Meath, Ireland

Skryne Church is a ruined nave-and-chancel church built in 1341 on the Hill of Skryne, County Meath. Its three-storey bell tower has a base-batter and holds fragments of a baptismal font and a tomb slab. Inside are mural stairs to a rood screen and an arched tomb recess; a carving of a man, possibly Colm Cille, stands near the door, and a medieval cross is nearby.

A monastery called Achall stood here before the Normans; in the 10th century the shrine of Columba (Colm Cille) was brought for safekeeping, giving the Irish name Scrín Choluim Chille. Adam de Feypo, first Baron Skryne, founded a church dedicated to Nicholas of Myra and gave it to his brother Thomas, a Cistercian of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin, which held it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1534. Francis de Feypo, last de Feypo baron, built the present church in 1341 as a house of Augustinians; the tower followed in the 15th century.

The hill and parish take the name Skryne from Scrín Choluim Chille, "Colmcille's Shrine", because the saint's shrine or relics were brought to the earlier monastery here in the 10th century. The monastery was named Achall, after the legendary figure Achall. The de Feypo family, Norman barons of Skryne, founded and endowed the church.

Skryne Church stands on the Hill of Skryne, 1.4 km northwest of Skryne village and 3.2 km east of the Hill of Tara; the ruins sit beside Mrs O'Connell's pub. The tower is three storeys high with a base-batter, and the nave and chancel are entered at ground level. Look for the mural stairs to the rood screen and the arched tomb recess.

The man's carving is near the door, not above an interior doorway, and may be Colm Cille. The three-storey bell tower has a base-batter and holds fragments of a baptismal font and a tomb slab; a medieval cross stands nearby. The site is beside Mrs O'Connell's pub, which appeared in a Guinness Christmas advertisement.