Standing like a giant mushroom on three uprights is a 5000 year old tomb with a huge capstone, known as ‘The Giant’s Load’. Local legend claims that the capstone, which weighs some 46 tons, was placed there by a giant. In fact it was probably...
Little is left of this once great Abbey, founded in 553 by St Columba, or Colmcille. The Venerable Bede called it ‘a noble monastery known as Dearmach, the Field of Oaks, because of the oak forest in which it stands’. Though it was plundered and burnt...
To the North of this little farmland village stand the imposing Gothic ruins of Lislaughtin Friary, built in 1478 by John O’Connor Kerry. This once-magnificent friary stands in verdant countryside, ivy-clad and roofless, its tower and cloisters gone and bushes growing out of its centre. But...
The Glenmalur Valley is considered by many to be the most spectacular of County Wicklow’s glens, by others to be sombre and forbidding. It carries the River Avonbeg and begins just South of Rathdrum, but becomes a long, narrow glacial amphitheatre, with steep sides, above...
Even though it lies in ruins, this Franciscan friary is unusually complete and gives an interesting insight into monastic life. Ross Errilly Abbey (or Ross Abbey) was founded in the middle of the 14th century by the de Burgo family, although most of what remains...
The River Bann divides this village in two, with part of the population living in County Londonderry and the rest in County Antrim. They are connected by a wide bridge. Black basalt stone has been used in many of the buildings in the village, particularly the...
A few low stone walls and ruined buildings cupped in a hollow of protective hills , are all that is left of Ireland’s first Cistercian Abbey. It was founded in 1142 by St Malachy , Bishop of Armagh , after a stay in the French...
At the head of Clonakilty Bay is a peninsula known as Inchydoney Island , and so called because up to 1845 it was cut off from the mainland at high tide. The high tide no longer rises high enough to isolate Inchydoney , and two...
This large ruin of a friary shares much with its neighbour , Rosserk. Both compete for the title of largest and most impressive ecclesiastical ruins in Mayo. Moyne was founded as a Franciscan friary by the Burke family , built in late Irish Gothic style...
Rising from an Island is Lough Oughter is a massive , circular stone tower , 59ft high. The lower storey , with walls 6ft thick , was built in the 13th century on an existing crannog , or artificial island , which had natural rock...