inishkeen round tower

The first reference to the existence of a monastery here is in 685, and the death of the last recorded monk took place in 1085. The monastery, however, was founded in the 6th century by St. Diag who studied under St. Ciaran at Clonmacnois, and St. Colmcille is said to have been present at the foundation, and blessed the monastery.

There remains the stump of a Round Tower now 42 feet high, with a doorway 14 feet above the ground. A road contractor made a hole in the tower in the last century, but he was mercifully stopped in tome from doing any further damage. Some fragments of an older church have been built into the wall of the ruined modern church nearby.