Fore Abbey

Fore was the only Benedictine house of any size in medieval Ireland, founded around 1180 and fortified later with towers and a gatehouse - unusual for a monastery, and a sign of how exposed the location was. The ruins are substantial: church, cloister, tower and domestic buildings, on the floor of a valley below a hill. What makes Fore distinctive is the Seven Wonders, a set of local marvels catalogued in folklore and now marked on a walking trail: the monastery built on a bog, the mill without a race, the water that flows uphill, the tree that will not burn, the water that will not boil, the anchorite in a stone, and the stone raised by Saint Feichin's prayers. Several have prosaic explanations and some do not work at all; the anchorite's cell, a fifteenth-century tower where a hermit lived walled in, is the most striking of them. The trail is a couple of kilometres on farm and boggy ground.

What you actually see

• The Benedictine ruins - church, cloister and fortified towers from 1180 on.
• The anchorite's cell - the tower where a hermit lived enclosed.
• The Seven Wonders trail - the folklore marvels, marked around the valley.
• The valley setting - the abbey below a hill, with the trail circling it.

When to go

April to October. The trail crosses wet ground and is muddy after rain. The abbey ruins are open at any hour; the anchorite's cell needs a key from the village.

Honest expectations

Several of the Seven Wonders are underwhelming or no longer observable. The anchorite's cell is locked - the key is held locally. The trail is muddy and crosses farmland. Minimal facilities in the village.

Nearby

Lough Lene is close; Castlepollard and Tullynally are north.