Ecclesiastical site

The National Monuments Service's description

Innisfallen Island is one of twenty-four islands in Lough Leane, Killarney. Late 12th/early 13th-century abbey of Canons Regular of St Augustine dedicated to St Mary on or near the site of an early medieval monastery reputedly founded in the 6th century AD by St Finan (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970; Calendar of Cashel after O'Donovan 1841). The Annals of Inisfallen were reputedly transcribed here, although earlier portions of the text were possibly written at one of the larger monasteries in Munster (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 24). In 1582 the island was granted to Sir Richard Collum. By the end of the 16th century it was in the ownership of Sir Valentine Browne, Earl of Kenmare. Subsequent earls developed the island as a tourist attraction throughout the late 17th/early 18th century. By 1840 visits to the island declined and by the beginning of the 20th century Inisfallen was in the ownership of the McShain family. In 1973, the McShain family passed Innisfallen, and most of the Muckross Estate, into State ownership. Both are now part of Killarney National Park. (Weaver 1995)

The ecclesiastical remains, situated along the N and NE shoreline in view of each other, comprise the following: an Augustinian Abbey incorporating an earlier church (KE066-072016-), a small oratory (KE066-072002-), a possible beehive hut/clochán (KE066-072006-), a Romanesque oratory (KE066-072007-) and a Romanesque church ('Abbot's Church') (KE066-072008-). There are also a number of architectural fragments, cross-slabs (KE066-072009-, KE066-072010-, KE066-072011-), grave-slabs (KE066-072004-), a fragment of a possible 'pillow-stone' (KE066-072012-), a bullaun stone (KE066-072005-) and a stoup (KE066-072003-)

M. Weaver 1995 'An architectural survey of Inisfallen Island, Lough Leane, Co. Kerry.' MA Thesis, Dept. of Archaeology, UCC.

Compiled by: Mairéad Weaver

Date of upload: 17 February 2011