Kilcrea Abbey (in Ruins) — Kilcrea

In tillage, c. 80m S of the River Bride. Kilcrea castle (CO084-022001-) is visible c. 500m to the W, and the friary gate is aligned to the castle entrance. This friary was founded in 1465 for Observant Franciscans by Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, 6th Lord of Muskerry (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 251), on land that Cormac had recovered from the Anglo-Norman Barret family c.1420. Before the arrival of the Anglo-Norman, Muskerry had formed part of his ancestors’ original lordship, the medieval kingdom of Desmond (Lafaye 2018, 133). Cormac was killed in 1495 by his own brother, Eoghan, and by Eoghan’s sons (O’Donovan 1848-51, vol. 4, 1213), and he was buried in the friary wearing a Franciscan habit. Though Kilcrea friary was officially supressed in 1542, the friars remained at Kilcrea until the Cromwellian period, under the patronage of the MacCarthys; in the meantime the friary was sacked in 1584 and c. 1590, but repaired in 1603 and again in the 1620s (Gwynn and Hadcock ibid.). While the friary now stands in the middle of an empty field, 16th and 17th-century sources refer to grist mills, water mills and eel weirs on the River Bride, all located within the precinct of the friary, as well as gardens and houses (Lafaye ibid., 134-6). However, a geophysical survey of areas around the friary and the tower house carried out by the Discovery Programme in 2015 revealed little evidence for archaeological remains – though it is likely that the structures mentioned would have been made of timber (Dowling 2015). The main friary buildings are roughly contemporary though built in sequence: the church first, then the E range and finally the N and W ranges; all were probably erected shortly after the foundation date, and metrological analysis of the plan indicate it was carefully laid out ahead of construction (Lafaye 2016, 134; 142). At a later stage, but not long after, the two garderobe structures and the sacristy building were added. The plan of the church, with an aisled nave and a single-armed ‘transept’ (more correctly a chapel hosting secondary altars), is typical of late medieval Irish mendicant friaries. They evolved from the more ‘piece-meal’ construction of early friaries, which resulted from the growing popularity of the friars and the need to accommodate larger crowds in the nave, as well as burials and private chapels commissioned by wealthy patrons. Timoleague Franciscan friary (CO123-050002-), which may have been one of the first Irish mendicant friaries where a ‘chapel-transept’ was built from the time of its foundation in the early 14th century, may have been a source of inspiration for Cormac MacCarthy; the MacCarthy Reagh, a junior branch of the MacCarthy family, were its mains patrons (Lafaye Ibid., 144-5). The friary survives in its entirety, with the exception of the cloister arcade. The remains consist of the church, with cloister garth and surrounding ranges to the N (see plans: Westropp 1908, 169; Cochrane 1912, 58-9; Monastic Ireland: http://monastic.ie/tour/kilcrea-franciscan-friary/); most walls stand to full height. The friary is approached by an embanked avenue from the road to the W. The entire complex has been used as a graveyard (CO084-024001-) by the local community over the past four centuries, and there is an extensive number of gravestones and burial monuments throughout the remains (Henchion 1968). Among them, in the SE corner of the nave is the tomb (1.85m E-W; 0.93m N-S) of Art Ó Laoghaire (Art O’Leary), killed in 1773 following a feud with Abraham Morris, High Sheriff of County Cork. Art’s wife, Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, an aunt of Daniel O’Connell, composed the lament in Irish Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, which became popular during the twentieth century. The church is comprised of a nave and a chancel divided by a tower, with an aisled chapel and a lateral aisle to the S of the nave. The nave (c. 25m E-W; 7.2m N-S) is entered through a door with a pointed arch in the W gable; overhead is a large pointed window embrasure, missing its tracery. An arcade of three pointed arches separate the nave from the lateral aisle (c. 13.9m E-W; 3.2m N-S) springing from side walls and from two intermediary pillars of rounded section; a similar arcade of two arches separates the S chapel (c. 13.5m N-S; 7.15m E-W) from its own aisle (c. 13.5m N-S; 3.06m E-W) on its W side; the arch also springs across the angle of the aisle. All cut-stone details of these arcades have 'plain mouldings' (Westropp ibid., 168). The chapel is lit by a large pointed window in the S gable, missing its tracery, and by a pair of windows in the E wall, each flanked by a piscina, suggesting the position of two side altars. There is a double ogee-headed light covered by hood moulding at the S end of the chapel’s aisle. The E end of the nave is lit by two much-damaged windows in the N wall, and by one in the S wall in the angle between the tower and the S chapel; the latter has a single, wide light with a pointed arch. Under the windows in the N wall is a pair of plain tomb recesses; the recess to the E still contains a tomb with an uninscribed grave slab decorated with a cross with a stepped base and an ‘interlaced head forming a quadruple knot’ (Westropp ibid., 169 and 73). At the E end of the nave a plain, rounded wicker-centred arch (Wth 3.2m) leads to the area under the tower (4.4m E-W); a similar arch to the E gives entry into the chancel. Directly to the S of the tower is a lintelled passage (2.7m E-W; 0.9m to 1.7m N-S) leading into the transept to the W, and to outside the church though a now blocked access in its E wall. Westropp also suggests it gave access into the E end of the nave through a small doorway underneath the window there, to perhaps a pulpit – however, this corner is obscured by Art O’Leary’s tomb. The area underneath the tower also has a door with a pointed arch in the N wall leading to the cloister, and another similar door near the N end of the E wall, giving access to the tower stairs. The tower (H c. 24m) is comprised of four floors over an open ground-floor area; each floor is lit by windows with flat-headed lights except for the top floor, which has a window in the centre of each wall, with single ogee-headed lights. The spiral stairs in the NE corner of the area under the tower rises to 1st-floor level; further access is provided by stairs rising through mural passages in the W, S, and E walls before finally rising as another spiral in the NE corner to wall-walk level; the base of the parapet wall survives but the battlements are gone. Stone flashing on the E and W faces shows the angle of the nave and chancel roofs; an external string course marks the division between the 3rd and 4th floors. In the E wall, at 2nd-floor level, is a small lintelled door giving access from mural stairs to the attic of the chancel roof; a small window at the peak of the E gable of church lit the attic. According to 17th-century Franciscan historian Donatus Mooney, a magnificent rood cross, embellished with gold and silver, used to hang from the tower in the church, but it was destroyed in 1584 when the church was plundered by English soldiers (Jennings 1934, 70). The chancel (c. 14.7m E-W; 7.2m N-S) is lit by a large window in the E gable; the tracery is now missing but a reconstruction drawing (Cochrane ibid., 65) shows four bluntly pointed lights rising to swithchline tracery. The chancel is also lit by four windows in the S wall, all missing lights except the E-most one, which has a single wide light with a pointed arch; the other three appear to have contained double pointed lights. Near the E end of the S wall is a piscina recess covered by a pointed arch. At the E end of the N wall is a tomb recess, covered by a plain pointed arch. This was considered the most privileged position to be buried in a friary church, usually reserved to the founder or main benefactor; it is known as Cormac MacCarthy’s place of burial, and is now commemorated by a modern p