abbeys ireland

Standing on an earlier monastic site founded by St. Cronan (of Tuamgraney?), the Church was granted to the Augustinian Canons of Clareabbey by Donal Mor O'Brien in 1189. The church, with its unusual east window with foliage decoration on the outside, probably dates to this period. By 1302 it had become a parish church. In the 15th century conventual buildings (of which parts remain), a sacristy and south transept were added. it was granted to Donogh, Earl of Thomond, in 1620. It is idyllica...

Claregalway Abbey was founded in 1290 and in spite of a very turbulent history remained in use into the last century.

There still remains the graceful tower, nave, choir (with a de Burgo tomb), a fine east window, north aisle and transept. Nearby is the massive square keep of a de Burgo Castle which figured in Norman Warfare with the O' Flaherty's....

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 church was built, perhaps for a nunnery, in the early part of the 13th century, and consists of a nave and chancel. The church is entered through a flat-headed doorway in the north wall which may have been taken from an earlier church on the same site and inserted here, or could be one of the latest uses of this type of doorway in Ireland. Although the chancel arch with its four orders is incomplete, it still retains fine sculptured capitals including foliage and imaginary beasts. other f...

The Augustinian Abbey was founded by Dermot macMurrough, probably on or near the site of the primitive oratory of St Mogue. The abbey was burned down in 1154, but MacMurrough rebuilt it in 1160 and died there in 1171. The remains consist of a tower built in tow stages ( the lower stage square and the upper stage round), the north wall of the church and the priests residential apartments. The only remains of the Cathedral are the ruined chancel and some fragments of the piers of a nave...

Abbeyshrule is situated east of Ballymahon in a picturesque valley of the River Inny. A Cistercian Abbey was founded here in 1150 and was one of the earliest in the country following the success of the first foundation at Melifont in County Louth. The Abbey was founded by the O'Farrells and was eventually closed by Queen Elizabeth 1 during the Tudor suppression of the monasteries. The lands were granted to Robert Dillon, Earl of Roscommon. The adjoining graveyard contains part of the only hi...

Cistercian Abbey, one of the finest, if little known abbeys. It features a truly delightful east rose window and an undisturbed air of rural tranquillity which belies its turbulent history....

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...

13km from Clontuskert, on the road north to Ballinasloe, is Clontuskert - Abbey - . A monastery was founded here in 805.
Not much of the building remains, but the church has some interesting fragments of a 14th/15th century road screen of Sligo - Abbey - type: a 15th century north transept: a perpendicular west door of 1471 with figures of St Michael, John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria, and Augustine, and a holy water stone.

In 1637 the priory was re-edified on a reduced scale...