st mullin s

The monastery was founded by St Moling who died in 696. Active in politics, he succeeded in convincing the Leinstermen to let the Munstermen off the Borama, a triditional tribute of cattle which they were forced to pay. St.. Moiling is said to have been Bishop of Ferns and also of Glendalough. The kings of south Leinster, including the McMurrough Kavanaghs, were buried here. St. Mullin's Abbey is a medieval nave-and-chancel church with spiral staircase. Near it are the stump of a Round Tower, a tiny oratory ('St. James's Chapel') and a small granite High Cross with a Crucifixion on the east face and interlacing and wave-like motifs on the other faces. Further down the slope is a medieval domestic building with an unusual diamond-shaped east window. Between the 'Abbey' and the graveyard gate is a small building with antae known as 'The Bath', while outside the gate is a Norman motte. The monastery was plundered by the Vikings in 951 and was burned in 1138. In an 8th century manuscript, known as 'The Book of Mulling' there is a plan of the monastery - the earliest known plan of an Irish monastery-which shows four crosses inside the round monastic wall and eight crosses outside it.