abbeys ireland

Shortly after the Norman invasion, about 1206, a hospital for the sick and infirm was founded here by Ursus de Swemele and his wife Christina, the care of the hospital being put in charge of a religious community. By the end of the 13th century, it was taken over by the Augustinians or Crutched Friars, and the subsequent history of the Abbey was an uneventful one. After a period of decline it was reformed by the Observantines in 1519.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, after the Re...

St Francis Abbey founded by Richard Marshall in 1234, the church walls and belfry tower of this Franciscan foundation are preserved on their original site, now the yard of Smithwick's Brewery....

Donal Mor O'Brien founded a church on this island in the Shannon estuary for the Augustinian Canons some time towards the end of the 12th century. In the 15th century a tower was built to the south of the nave, and two chapels were added. Most of the domestic buildings are of the same period; they comprise a sacristy next to the church, a chapter room in the east side, and a kitchen, a pantry and refectory on the ground floor of the south wing. There were no buildings in the western portion....

Drumlane Church and Round Tower were part of an Augustinian abbey foundation.
The siting of the monastery was inspired, as the 14th century church and earlier tower are beautifully situated between Drumlane and Derrybrick lakes.

An unusual feature of the Round Tower is the engraving of a cock on the north face, thought to symbolise the resurrection.
The present buildings occupy the site of a 6th century monastery founded by St. Mogue, a pupil of St David of Wales....

This abbey is situated a short distance outside the town and was first a Cistercian then a Benedictine Monastery. The remains consist of portions of the cloister and two chapels in each transept. A tower was added in the 15th century....

This Abbey, standing on the site of an island monastery founded in the 6th century by St. Maelanfaidh, was re-founded for the Canons Regular of St. Augustine towards the close of the 12th century. The buildings now form a square around a cloister garth. The church is rectangular, and may contain elements from an older church; it is lighted by 10 fine lancet windows. On the east side of the cloister is the Chapter Room, where Raymond Le Gros is said to have been buried in 1186, while there is...

Cahir abbey: The Abbey of Our Lady was founded in the 13th century in the reign of King John by Geoffrey de Carnville, a Norman Knight. It was an Augustinian foundation of the Order of the Canons Regular. It has a high central tower, 70ft. in height which was converted into a dwelling house at some post-reformation date. Part of another tower remains. The out-buildings reached as far as the river. Edward Lonergan was its last prior and it was in full use for over 400 years - currently bein...

Jerpoint Abbey is located about 1 mile from Thomastown and is undoubtedly one of the finest Cistercian monastic ruins in Ireland. The Abbey was founded by Donal Mac Gillapatrick, King of Ossory, in 1158 for the Benedictines, but it was later colonised by the Cistercians from Baltinglass in 1180. Jerpoint, in its turn, became the mother house for the Abbeys of Kilcooly, Co. Tipperary and Kilkenny in 1184. In 1227 it became affiliated to Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. After the dissolution of the M...

Errew Abbey was founded by the Barretts for the Augustinian Canons in 1413. The church is a long rectangular building; although much of the dressed stonework has fallen, there are some good trefoil windows remaining, as well as a piscina. The ground floor of the domestic buildings is preserved on the eastern wing of the cloister, but otherwise little of these buildings remain. the church, however, antedates the foundation and is of 13th century date. Templenagalliaghdoo: Nearby is a sma...

Holycross is a Cistercian Abbey which has been restored in recent years. The Abbey dates to the 15th century. The Church consists of a nave and Chancel with two transepts. The northern transcept has traces of one of the new remaining medieval wall paintings in Ireland....