Carlingford Abbey is the ruin of a Dominican friary founded around 1305 under the patronage of Richard Óg de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, and dedicated to Saint Malachy. Towers were added to the corners of the west gable in 1423, giving the church its fortified look. After the Dissolution it served at various times as a hall, a barracks and a handball alley. In the 1670s the Dominicans and Franciscans fought over who should have it, and Archbishop Oliver Plunkett settled the dispute for the Dominicans, who finally left for Dundalk in 1777.
What remains is the nave and chancel divided by a central bell tower, with traces of a mill and outbuildings to the south. It is just off Dundalk Street at the southern end of the village and makes a quiet end to a walk through the medieval centre.