churches historical clare

Donal Mor O'Brien founded a church on this island in the Shannon estuary for the Augustinian Canons some time towards the end of the 12th century. In the 15th century a tower was built to the south of the nave, and two chapels were added. Most of the domestic buildings are of the same period; they comprise a sacristy next to the church, a chapter room in the east side, and a kitchen, a pantry and refectory on the ground floor of the south wing. There were no buildings in the western portion....

Killinaboy is an early monastic site named after St. Inghean Bhaoth. It has the remains of a church of the 11th or 12th century, over the south door, a Sheila-na-gig, female figure with no ascertainable ecclesiastical significance. On the outside of the west gable is the design of a two bar cross in the masonry. There is also the base of a round tower.

A short distance away on the bank of the River Fergus is an ivy-clad turret and bawn, known as De Clare's House.

About 1.5 k...

On the far side of Liscannor Bay, 5 km north-west of Lahinch. It is a small fishing village. Kilmacreehy, or St. Macreehy's Church, 1.5 km east of Liscannor, is a medieval parish church, with nave and chancel. It was built in the early 12th century, on the site of a famous school founded by St. Macreehy in the 6th century.

The castle ruin in the village, built by the O'Connors, became an O'Brien stronghold and was occupied by Sir Turlough O'Brien during the threatened invasion at the...

The cathedral was founded about 1185 by Donal More O'Brien on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, the doorway of which is preserved in the south-west corner of the Cathedral. The Cathedral is in the form of a cross, and has three narrow lancet windows in the east gable. Beside the Romanesque door near the main entrance is one of the few stones in the country with a Viking runic inscription; it is unique in that it also has the same inscription in Ogham asking for a prayer for Thorgrim wh...

The church and Round Tower stand on the site of an Early Christian monastery founded by St. Tola who died between 733 and 737. Where the church stands there was a 12th century Romanesque nave-and-chancel church with a plain chancel arch and a wonderfully decorated west doorway above which was an ornamental lancet window. Three narrow lancet windows were inserted in the east gable early in the 13th century.

Some considerable time later the church must have fallen into decay. Possibly...

A resort town, 12 km from Ross, built along a fine beach in Moore Bay, the entrance which is protected from the full force of the Atlantic by a reef known as the Duggerna Rocks.

Kilkee has, of course, like virtually every townland in Ireland, an early history of saints and warriors but its career as a seaside resort took off in early Victorian times. The affluent families of Limerick City built themselves summer villas, "lodges", near the beach which offered safe swimming, ocean bree...

In St Flannan's Catholic Church grounds it eh oratory of St Lua, probalby 1,000 to 1,200 years old - here since 1930 when it was brought from Friar's Island as the Shannon scheme threatened to submerge it. This elevated site once housed Kincora, the palace of the Dal Cais clan, notably King Brian Boru and his descendants, the O'Briens. The Cathedral of the Church of Ireland and, in its grounds , an oratory which has a high -pitched roof, a barrel vaulted ceiling of stone with a croft or...

The cathedral of St Flannan, on the west bank of the river, close to the bridge, dates from the 13th century. It is a simple building without aisles but with north and south transepts and a low bell tower where transepts, nave and chancel join to form the usual cross. The church is of sandstone in a variety of shades. Immediately inside the entrance, on the right, a rich Romanesque doorway (taken from an earlier and, it is said, finer church on the same site) frames a window on the southern s...

A small church dedicated to St Cronan of Roscrea, or Tuamgraney. The original lintelled doorway in the west wall was blocked up when an arched doorway was inserted into the north wall, probably some time in the 15th century. In the exterior walls there are some grotesque Romanesque heads, so the church probably dates from the 12th century. Near the church is a stone tomb-reliquary of uncertain date, which is locally said to mark the grave of St. Cronan. Another stands in the adjoining field....

There is a somewhat doubtful report that the monastery was following the Benedictine rule in the 8th century. The Vikings burned the monastery in 836 and again in 922. Brian Boru is said to have built one of the churches on the island, while his brother, who died in 1009, was Abbot. Around 1043 a monk at Inishcaltra named Anmchad was ordered to leave the monastery because, as Guest-master, he had offered wine to the monastery's guests without the Abbot's permission. He left for Fulda in Germ...