mellifont cistercian abbey

Some of its pillars have been reconstructed, but its most unusual feature is the octagonal tow-storey Lavabo in the middle of the south side where there was originally a fountain in which the monks washed their hands before going in to eat in the refectory nearby. On the eastern side of the cloister is the fine vaulted chapter house, built in the 14th century, which now serves as a repository for miscellaneous architectural fragments. Its door was removed in the 18th century. There are a number of other buildings around the clositer, but it is difficult to assign a purpose to them. Within a century after its foundation Mellifont became the parent or grandparent of more than 35 Cistercian monasteries throughout the country.

The French monks who were sent over to Mellifont to help found the monastery did not get on well with the Irish monks, and returned shortly afterwards to France. By the first half of the thirteenth century the monks had become lax, and there were many irregularities, including insubordination, both in Mellifont and in its daughter houses. In 1223 Pope Honorius ordered that all offenders should surrender their office. In 1228 Stephen went so far as to ask the Abbot of Clairvaux to move the monastery to another site in order to rid the monastery of the dissension, and he asked the king to protect the monastery. After that there was considerable peace, but in 1494 the local nobles seem to have invaded and plundered the monastery. The church was converted into a residence in 1556, but the monks must have lived on, for the death of the last abbot is recorded in 1743.