monastery ireland

In the sixth century A.D. a Christian monastery was founded on the hill of Derry. The site was allegedly granted by a local king who had a fortress there. A similar kind of fortress can be seen at the spectacular Grianan of Aileach, a few miles west of the city and now in County Donegal. According to legend the monastery of Derry was established by the great Irish saint Colmcille/Columba (521-597). Colmcille founded many important monasteries in Ireland and Britain, including Durrow in the i...

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...

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...

Gateway: The Gateway to the old monastic city is the only surviving one of its kind in the country. Originally comprising of a keeper's house and a small tower, the principal remains now consist of two semi-circular archways supported by granite piers. The gateway is of later origin than the other buildings of the lower group, it having been part of the surrounding defensive wall which was constructed to secure the city from attack....

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...

Little or nothing is known of the history of the monastery; its name signifies 'Island of the Foreigners'. Two churches remain. St. Patrick's was originally a simple rectangular church, with a flat-headed doorway, but a chancel was later added to it. Linked to it by an old roadway is The Saint's Church, which is a Romanesque nave-and-chancel church restored in the last century by Sir Benjamin Guinness.

Its main feature is the fine Romanesque west doorway with heads on the capitals an...

The monastery was probably founded by St. Feichin of Fore who died in 664. St. Gormgall 'Chief Confessor of Ireland' died and was buried here in 1017. One of the important manuscripts of the Life of St. Feichin was written on the island. The most important ruin is a rectangular church, with a flat-headed doorway.

The doorway may not be original as the lintel of the door is an old cross-slab. The east end of the church is destroyed. Around the church are the remains of beehive huts,...

The island is now only occasionally inhabited by fishermen, but in the Early Christian period is supported an apparently flourishing monastery. The most conspicuous thing on the island is the Bailey Mor, a large mound 500 feet in diameter, and 60 feet high, on which beehive huts and square houses were found. One of these houses contained an Early Christian cross-slab with the Crucifixion on it. some other cross-slabs have also been found. A great number of purpura shells came to light, 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...

This monastery was founded for monks who came to the mainland here from the offshore island of Skellig Michael in the 12th or 13th century. As with their former monastery, this one was also dedicated to St. Michael.

The buildings have been partially eroded by the sea. The two remaining churches seem to date however from the 15th century and have windows and a door with dressed stones. Adjoining one of the churches is a 15th century cloister garth with a large hall on the other side...