abbeys ireland

A Cistercian Abbey founded by Richard Tuit in 1211 and colonised from St. Mary's in Dublin in 1214. It was pillaged by Edward Bruce in 1315. The only surviving parts of the Abbey are the crossing of 1214, and the tower inserted over it in the 15th century. The tower was approached by an inserted stairway; the tower had a barrel vault over the crossing....

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....

An Early Christian monastery was founded here around 630 by St. Feichin who died of the plague in 664-5. At one time there were 300 monks in the monastery. It was burned in 771, 830 and again in 870, and a number of times in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries. From this old monastery one church - St. Feichin's - survives, standing in a graveyard above the road. Originally it was a simple rectangular building with antae, and with a Greek corss in relief over the flat-headed doorway. A c...

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...

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...

Moyne Abbey and Rosserk Abbey are located close to each other, north of Ballina. Both compete for the title of largest and most impressive ecclesiastical ruins in Mayo and both have much in common. Moyne was founded by the Burke Family as a Franciscan friary. Built in the late Irish Gothic Style, it was consecrated in 1462. This abbey was destroyed in the 1590s by Queen Elizabeth's governor of Connacht, Sir Richard Bingham....

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...

St. Malachy of Armagh brought a handful of monks with him from Clairvaux and founded the first Irish Cistercian monastery here in 1142, on lands granted by Donogh O'Carroll, Prince of Uriel. St. Bernard of Clairvaux sent a skilful architect named Robert to help build the church, and this is reflected in the rounded chapels in the transepts - which are of Continental origin and which are some of the few remaining portions of the original church. In 1157 the church was consecrated with great pom...

The original monastery was founded int eh 6th century by St. Cuan or St. Breoghan, but was re-founded for the Augustinians by the Power family, presumably in the 13th century. It was closely associated with St. Catherine's Abbey in Waterford. After the Suppression of the Monasteries in 1537, it passed to the Powers, but they were dispossessed half a century later. Some few medieval wall fragments remain, but the best surviving feature is a tomb by Roricus O'Comayn, with the following panels;...

The only surviving remnant of an early monastery here is the 9th/10th century High Cross situated on a dominant hillock overlooking the lake. It would appear to be the only High Cross in Northern Ireland where the shaft and head of the cross are likely to have belonged together originally. Old Testament scenes decorate the east face (Adam and Eve, Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the Lions' Den and Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace) and south side (Cain slaying Abel, David [or Sampson?] and the...