Today I was aiming for Muckross House and the Gap of Dunloe,
but got sidetracked when I accidentally discovered the nearby Muckross Abbey.
The ruins of the abbey visible today were built by the
Franciscans in the 15th century. They are well-preserved, and
someone has done a terrific job of tidying them up just enough so that visitors
can safely explore them, without actually reconstructing the building – which I
always hate as I think it takes away the feeling of the age of the building,
the sense of being in an actual historical place rather than a replica.
The highlights for me were the reinstated first floor, as
this was the first time I realised many of these abbeys often contained two or
more storeys – usually with the chapel, refectory (dining room), and other work
rooms downstairs and bedrooms upstairs – and the unroofed central courtyard,
framed by the cloisters and completed with a yew tree in the centre. These
cloisters were almost unique among the ruins I visited as they remained intact –
and the yew in the centre of the courtyard, well in a corner, and alternating
rain and rays of sunshine made inspired deep and quiet thoughts. If we didn’t
know who these abbeys were built by, I wonder if we would have assumed that
they worshipped trees …
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| Cloister courtyard, Muckross Abbey |