abbeys ireland

The only surviving remnant of an early monastery here is the 9th/10th century High Cross situated on a dominant hillock overlooking the lake. It would appear to be the only High Cross in Northern Ireland where the shaft and head of the cross are likely to have belonged together originally. Old Testament scenes decorate the east face (Adam and Eve, Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the Lions' Den and Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace) and south side (Cain slaying Abel, David [or Sampson?] and the...

A focal point of the northern midlands where the provinces of Leinster, Ulster and Connaught all converge, Longford, where history and literature, tragedy and triumph are all woven together, takes its name from the ancient stronghold of the O'Farrell family (Long Fort - Fort of the O'Farrells). Bordered to the West by the majestic River Shannon, Longford is a county of rolling plains and picturesque stretches of water. The highest pint of the county, Cairn Hill, is only 279 m high, but from a...

As you travel from Keadue to Ballyfarnon you reach Kilronan Cemetery containing the ruins of Kilronan Abbey, built in the 6th century. Twice burned down, it was last rebuilt in the 17th century. In the cemetery is the grave of Turlough O'Carolan, harper, composer, poet and singer.

Born in Nobber, Co.Meath, in 1670 and blinded by smallpox as a child, he came to the home of Mrs. McDermott Roe of Alderford, Ballyfarnon, who befriended him. Having educated him and furthered his musical st...

In 1148 Dermot Mac Murrough brought Cistercian monks here from Mellifont to found a new monastery which he called 'The Valley of Salvation', and Baltinglass in turn was the mother-house of a number of other Cistercian foundations including Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny. The monastery was the centre of a number of disputes in the 13th century, one with the Archbishop of Dublin and another in which the monks were accused of harbouring 'felons against the English'. In 1377 Abbot Peter was awarded damages...

An Early Christian monastery was founded here around 630 by St. Feichin who died of the plague in 664-5. At one time there were 300 monks in the monastery. It was burned in 771, 830 and again in 870, and a number of times in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries. From this old monastery one church - St. Feichin's - survives, standing in a graveyard above the road. Originally it was a simple rectangular building with antae, and with a Greek corss in relief over the flat-headed doorway. A c...

This was founded in 1241 by Meiler de Bermingham.
Accidentally burned in 1423, it was re-built with a central tower and the present northern doorway. Restored in 1638-44, it was declared a university for the Dominican Order by decree of a General Chapter held in Rome.
In 1652, however the Cromwellians totally wrecked the place....

The site of St. Cannice's Monastery in the sixth-century. Plundered in 913, rebuilt in 1052, burnt I 1116, rebuilt in 1234, and again burnt in 1346. The nineteenth-century church on the site of the Augustinian Priory church retains thirteenth-century pieces and pieces from the nearby fourteenth-century Dominican Abbey. To the east is Aghaboe House (private), a recently restored early eighteenth-century house. In a field to the north is Adam de Hereford's square motte....

Near the shore of Lough Kinale are the slight remains of a thirteenth century abbey founded by an anglo-Norman, richard Tuite. It was plundered by Edward Bruce after the sack of Granard, but it survived until the dissolution and the tow of its abbots became bishops of Clonmacnois. A semicircular earthwork north of the village is regarded locally as the site of the original church founded here by St Patrick about 460. From the shore of Lough Kinale , 1 mile north -east of Abbeylara, p...

Founded by the MacNamaras in the middle of the 14th century using some of the curtain wall of the Anglo Norman castle built around 1280 by Richard de Clare. The cloisters were erected in 1402 and remain one of the features of the abbey. The Franciscan friars came later in the century. The view from the top of the tower is quite spectacular. A caretaker is on the grounds full time and should be contacted before entering....

St. Malachy of Armagh brought a handful of monks with him from Clairvaux and founded the first Irish Cistercian monastery here in 1142, on lands granted by Donogh O'Carroll, Prince of Uriel. St. Bernard of Clairvaux sent a skilful architect named Robert to help build the church, and this is reflected in the rounded chapels in the transepts - which are of Continental origin and which are some of the few remaining portions of the original church. In 1157 the church was consecrated with great pom...