Abbey (in Ruins) — Clonmeen South

Unclassified religious house (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 364). Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 344-5) refers to extensive remains of monastic buildings enclosed by a stone wall or caiseal and fosse. Remains now consist of a wall (L 6m) running NW-SE with an extensive length of wall-footing continuing from SE end. There is also another piece of standing masonry (Wth c. 1.6m) at SE. No other visible surface remains. Described by Carrigan as 'The townlands bounds Co. Tipperary, and contains two very ancient ecclesiastical ruins, one the "Old Abbey of Clonmeen", the other a "Church". The remains of the Abbey are considerable, the walls, which are 5 ft. thick, being in part, 20 ft. high. A long house running east and west, perhaps the Abbey chapel can be traced. Adjoining this on the north is the cloister area, measuring 30 yards from east to west and 23 yards from north to south; portions of the four enclosing walls remain. Around the cloister, at west, north and east, were the monastic buildings, dormitory, refectory, & c.; at its east end there is a flagged floor underneath the accumulated debris. Huge pieces of fallen masonry lie about each forming, as it were, a solid rock kept together by the extreme hardness of the grouting. One of these pieces is 7 and a half feet thick and was apparently portion of a great, strong central pier on which two adjoining arches once rested. The stone wall, or caiseal, and fosse that enclosed the Abbey can still be traced for the most part, the enclosure was about an acre in area' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 344-5). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007