South Abbey (Site of) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

South Abbey stood at the southern edge of Youghal when Maurice Fitzgerald founded the Franciscan house in 1224. Time and human ambition erased its walls, yet fragments still emerge during digging or hide inside nearby garden features. The lost friary continues to give back pieces of itself, proving that memory can survive the death of the building that first held it.

At S end of Youghal, just outside the medieval town walls, site of Franciscan friary founded in 1224 by Maurice Fitzgerald (Hayman 1855, 329; Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 261). There is 'no trace of this Friary now remaining' (Hayman ibid., 332); a drawing of 1585 (ibid., 331) shows standing remains but by 1681 there were 'only some small remains'. Hayman (ibid., 331-2) records many instances when human remains, building foundations and 'tomb-flags with fleureed crosses' were found in general area of site during foundation digging in early 19th century. O'Sullivan (1945, 96) locates the friary 'as extending from opposite the kitchen of the Devonshire Arms hotel to the end of the modern convent schools'. Two water fonts (CO067-028002-, CO067-028003-) from site in grounds of nearby Strand House; two pairs of ogee-heads (CO067-028004-, CO067-028005-) from window surrounds and two pointed door arches (CO067-028006-, CO067-028007-) set in garden wall of another nearby house. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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