monastery ireland

Ireland's Pleasure Lake, Lough Derg is the largest of the Shannon's lakes, and is almost an inland sea. It is renowned for game and coarse angling, boating, sailing, windsurfing, and skiing. The shores of Lough Derg on both the Tipperary and Clare sides are bound with picturesque villages, including Dromineer, Terryglass, Garry Kennedy and Mountshannon. The lake is dotted with many islands, the most famous of which is Inis Cealtra - Holy Island, which is the site of a 7th century monastic s...

The monastery was founded by St. Molaise or Laisren in the early 6th century, and was plundered by the Vikings in 802. The old monastery is surrounded by a stone wall up to 13 feet high which has five entrances leading into the central area measuring 175 by 135 feet. It is not certain whether this wall existed before the monastery was founded or not. The central area is divided into 4 enclosures, the largest of which contains Teampull na bFhear (The Men's Church), a church with antae and with...

Nendrum owes its origin to St Mochaoi who died before 500, and who is said to have been converted to Christianity by St. Patrick. It may not have developed into a monastery until the 7th century, when its island location made it easily accessible by sea, though this later proved a disadvantage when it probably fell a prey to the Vikings.
The location of the ancient monastery was rediscovered by Bishop Reeves in 1844, and Lawlor's extensive, if inadequately recorded, archaeological ex...

Nothing is known of the history of this monastery beyond the fact that it was dedicated to St. Brendan the Navigator, who lived in the mid 6th century. The remains consist of three churches, three beehive huts, part of the old monastic wall and some inscribed crosses. Of the three churches, St. Brendan's Oratory is rectangular and has a sloping roof, a flat-headed doorway and a square-headed east window. The Saint's Church nearby uses mortar to bind the stones together, and it is probably lat...

Famous for its perfect 12th-century round tower and ruined Augustinian abbey. Intricately carved 15th-century high cross in graveyard. Small museum. Ferry with a capacity of 12 is licensed for 199 departs Trory Point, 5 km from Enniskillen on A32 direction towards Irvinestown. Contact Mr William McFrederick, Historic Monuments Branch, Enniskillen....

The monastery was founded by St. Rioch around 530. It is mentioned in the Annals in 750, 809 and 916, and it was raided by the Munstermen in 115 and 1089. Two churches still remain. The more southerly church is a nave-and-chancel building with round-headed windows in the chancel, and a pointed door in the south wall of the nave. Near the north-eastern point of the island is the other church consisting of a nave, and a transept of almost equal size as well as a sacristy. To the north of the...

An island monastery, the ruins of which include a 12th century church with an intact Romanesque doorway and six unusual stone statues of 9th/10th century....

Situated on an island in Lough Ree, this monastery was founded probably in the first quarter of the 6th century by St. Diarmuid, teacher of St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois. The island is also associated with the legendary Queen Maeve who is said to have been killed by a stone fired by the sling of an Ulsterman from the shore one mile away, while she was bathing there. The earliest structure is probably St. Diarmuid's, a small rectangular tomb-shrine with antae and a flat-headed doorway. Twelve feet...

In the tranquil valley of the River Mattock, a subsidiary of the Boyne, lie the noble ruins of Mellifont, the first Cistercian monastery to be established in Ireland. Founded in 1142 by St. Malachy, the monastery was consecrated amidst great pomp and ceremony in 1157 at a great national synod attended by seventeen bishops and the High King. The new monastic order was successful in re-introducing discipline into what has become a very lax Irish Church. Over forty other Cistercian monasteries w...

Roundstone Bog and Wilderness Walk:

Connemara's finest hill and bog walk through Errisbeg and Roundstone Bog. A world heritage site with its hundreds of lakes and islands, Dogs Bay the regions finest beach, Inis Ni and the Aran Islands. See the landing site of the first ever non-stop transatlantic flight and Marconi station, where the first ever flight transatlantic radio messages were transmitted to Nova Scotia, Canada 1907.

12 Bens Mountain Walk:

Cl...