Religious house

In pasture on the highest point of a low hill, within a graveyard (LF010-062002-). The nunnery of 'Cluain Bronaich' is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and the deaths of a number of abbesses are recorded in the annals from 933 up until 1163, after which it drops into obscurity (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 314-15). In 1397 Denis Odunchun is recorded as the perpetual vicar (Cal. papal letters 1904, vol. 5, 105) and in 1444 Marcus Oforgail was appointed (ibid. 1912, vol. 9, 429). A church is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Granard barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.i.47). A report in 1944 (ITA Survey) recorded that the ruins of the nunnery were removed in the 19th century to build a nearby bridge. Described in 1982 (SMR file) as the grass-covered footings of a rectangular structure aligned E-W, probably the remains of a church. The W end was obscured by stones that had been dumped there as a result of clearance in the past. The line of the N wall extended eastwards beyond the presumed line of the E wall, suggesting the presence of another structure immediately to the E (ibid.). All that now survives are the wall-footings of the possible church (ext. dims. 13.2m E-W; 8.5m N-S; wall T 0.84m). A possible cross (LF010-062004-) lay to the SE. Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan, Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 4 June 2013

A religious house at Clonbroney, possibly a nunnery known as Cluain Bronaich, is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and associated with several abbesses; its exact date of foundation is unclear but it was active in the early medieval period.