Corcomroe Abbey

Corcomroe was founded around 1195 by Donal Mor O'Brien, king of Thomond, in a sheltered valley among the Burren hills - its Latin name, Sancta Maria de Petra Fertili, Saint Mary of the Fertile Rock, is a fair description of the setting. Cistercian rule discouraged ornament, and most Irish houses of the order are plain; Corcomroe is the exception. The chancel and transept chapels carry carved capitals with lilies, opium poppies and other plants that grow in the Burren, along with human heads and dragons, and the ribbed vaulting in the chancel is unusually fine. An effigy of a king, generally identified as Conor na Siudaine O'Brien who died in 1268, lies in a niche. Yeats set his play The Dreaming of the Bones here. The site is free, unstaffed and open at any hour, and it is usually quiet even in summer.

History

A band of Cistercian monks came here from Inislounaght in Tipperary in the late 12th century, and the foundation, dated between 1180 and 1200, is credited to Donal Mór Ua Briain. Legend says King Conor na Siudane Ua Briain had the five masons who finished the abbey executed so that they could not build a rival elsewhere, and the abbey appears in W. B. Yeats' play The Dreaming of Bones (Wikipedia, Corcomroe Abbey).

Highlights

• The carved capitals - Burren plants, heads and dragons, rare in a Cistercian house.
• The chancel vaulting - ribbed and finely worked.
• The O'Brien effigy - a carved king in a wall niche.
• The setting - a sheltered valley among bare Burren hills.

When to go

April to October for the ground and the light. Open at any hour with no gate. An hour covers it, and it is usually far quieter than the Burren's other stops.

Things to know

Unstaffed, roofless and with minimal interpretation. The carving is worn in places and needs looking for. The access lane is narrow and parking is a handful of spaces. No facilities.

Nearby

Ballyvaughan and the Burren coast are west; Kinvara is north-east.

Key facts