monastic sites ireland

Glendalough Monastery was founded by St. Kevin, in the 6th century. St. Kevin is perhaps unfairly linked to a poetic legend. While living in a cave as a hermit, he was supposedly pursued by a woman, who tried to seduce him. In a rage, he hurled her over the cliff, and into the lake, but there is no evidence to support this story. But his cave, which is located in the upper part of the lake is known as 'St. Kevin's Bed'.
Glendalough has a fabulous collection of buildings including the C...

The site of St. Cannice's Monastery in the sixth-century. Plundered in 913, rebuilt in 1052, burnt I 1116, rebuilt in 1234, and again burnt in 1346. The nineteenth-century church on the site of the Augustinian Priory church retains thirteenth-century pieces and pieces from the nearby fourteenth-century Dominican Abbey. To the east is Aghaboe House (private), a recently restored early eighteenth-century house. In a field to the north is Adam de Hereford's square motte....

The ruins of Kilmacduagh Monastic Settlement lie close to the border of counties Galway and Clare, on the eastern fringes of the Burren. because it is somewhat off the beaten track, it tends to be rather unjustly overlooked as one of the most interesting examples of early monastic architecture in the west of Ireland.

The monastery's most notable feature is the 11th/12th century Round Tower measuring 111ft to the tip of its cap. The tower is unusual in that it tilts, like its more famou...

Inchcleraun is situated on Lough Rea, which is associated with Queen Maeve. Legend telss that she was killed while bathing on the island, by an Ulsterman who shot a stone at her from the mainland, in revenge for the Ulster Cattle Raid. The monastery itself, was built in the 6th century, which is credited to St. Diarmuid.

There are the ruins of four churches there. The first - Teampul Mor, was built in the 13th century, probably by the Augustinians. The Women's Church is believed to have...

Two very early, possibly 8th century, High Crosses have elaborate and varied abstract patterns on the heads and shafts. the base of the larger north cross has Christ giving their mission to the Apostles, two processions and an uncertain animal scene. The south cross has the mission again, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Adam and Eve. A camera lens will note the detail far better than the eye in all but the most ideal slanted light. This is an important site in the development of Irish art. H...

A focal point of the northern midlands where the provinces of Leinster, Ulster and Connaught all converge, Longford, where history and literature, tragedy and triumph are all woven together, takes its name from the ancient stronghold of the O'Farrell family (Long Fort - Fort of the O'Farrells). Bordered to the West by the majestic River Shannon, Longford is a county of rolling plains and picturesque stretches of water. The highest pint of the county, Cairn Hill, is only 279 m high, but from a...

It appears to have been a very large building, containing no less than seven chapels: St. Martin's, St. Patrick's, St. Peter's, St. John the Baptist, St. George's and St. Anne's, the principal one supporting two chaplains. The steeple of this church "supposed to be the highest in the world was thrown down by a violent storm at Midnight 27th January 1548", and replaced by a steeple of wood. When, from the end of the 13th century, "The men of English blood or birth" appointed to the Primacy were...

A focal point of the northern midlands where the provinces of Leinster, Ulster and Connaught all converge, Longford, where history and literature, tragedy and triumph are all woven together, takes its name from the ancient stronghold of the O'Farrell family (Long Fort - Fort of the O'Farrells). Bordered to the West by the majestic River Shannon, Longford is a county of rolling plains and picturesque stretches of water. The highest pint of the county, Cairn Hill, is only 279 m high, but from a...

Distributed over many acres and extending into adjoining townlands, Carrowmore represents the largest grouping of megalithic monuments in Ireland, and immense Neolithic burial ground where once there may have been more than a hundred tombs. Casual exploration in the last century and present day gravel quarrying in the vicinity have devalued the archaeological potential of the site; but it is still a rewarding place to visit, steeped in atmosphere and evoking a sense of the past.
The s...

Visit the ruins of Achonry Monastery, founded by St Finian of Clonard in the 6th century , 6.5km (4mls) to the north east of the town. St Nathy's Church of Ireland Cathedral is now built on the site....