Hidden Gems

A Cistercian abbey , founded by Donal Mor O Brien in 1611. It is located in County Tipperary , and the abbey gets its name from a relic of the True Cross still housed there. It was rebuilt in the fifteenth century with patronage from the Butler...

North Western Europes most famous manuscript , containing illuminated copies of the Gospels , from circa 800. The Book of Kells was preserved in the Columban monastery at Kells , in County Meath , until 1653. Set up in the ninth century by monks from Iona ,...

The Blasket Islands are a group of islands off the Dingle Peninsula. Uninhabited since 1953 , the Blaskets were a mecca for linguists and anthropologists during the early years of the Gaelic , or Irish Language Revival (1905-1930). A large corpus of Gaelic autobiographies emerged from the...

Tall stone crosses with decorative carving. High crosses are Ireland's greatest contribution to European sculpture of the first millennium. These crosses were erected at monasteries to edify and teach both monks and laity through biblical representations carved on many of them. High kings helped commission...