Religious house - Franciscan friars

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a shoulder overlooking the Bonet River, which is c. 150m to the NE. This is an Observant Franciscan friary, known as Carraig Phádraigh – Patrick’s Rock - founded by Owen O'Rourke and his wife Margaret O'Brien in 1508, the pious couple who also commissioned the Shrine of St Caillín of Fenagh (LE025-096001-) in 1526 (Murphy 1892). Creevelea was accidentally burned in 1536 before it was suppressed in 1541, but it continued to be used intermittently by the friars until the 1590s (O'Connell 1937, 137-50; Kelly 2019, 200-01). Con O’Rourke, a grandson of the founders, entered the order at Carraig Phádraig, but on returning from a period in Rome was martyred at Kilmallock in 1579 (ibid. 199). The church, consisting of nave, chancel, tower and S transept, survives almost complete. The cloister and domestic buildings, largely reduced to the ground-floor level and foundations, are N of the church.
The nave (int. dims 18.6m E-W; 6.6m N-S) has a pointed W doorway (Wth 1.1m; H 2.1m) with a hood-moulding which has carved tendrils at the terminals. Overhead is a twin-light tracery window (Wth 1.4m; H 3.7m). Two round arches, springing from an octagonal and two attached semi-octagonal piers, lead to a S transept (int. dims 13.3m N-S; 6.75m E-W), which has a number of recesses and a large three-light pointed window (Wth 1.75m; H 4m) in the S wall from which the tracery has been removed. Its E wall has two windows, each with a two-light round-headed window and an altar inside.
East of the transept is the tower (ext. dims 8.6m N-S; 3.75m E-W) supported on two round arches (Wth 3m; H 5m) with decorated terminals, and a spiral stair from the SE angle leads to two inaccessible upper levels with a chimney over the NW angle (H 15m). The chancel (int. dims 12.6m E-W; 6.6m N-S) has four twin-light elliptical-headed windows in the S wall and a four-light tracery window in the E wall. The founders of the abbey, who died in 1528 and 1512, were buried in a magnificent tomb in the chancel (ibid. 138), but the tomb does not survive.
Doorways from the nave and chancel lead N to the cloister (dims 19m E-W; 17.7m N-S at W to 19m N-S at E), of which about half the arcading survives with some carved pillars (Crawford 1916a; Leask 1960, 149-51). A doorway from the chancel leads to a sacristy in the E range, from which a doorway leads to a room with a fireplace. North of this is the remains of the chapterhouse, accessed from the cloister. An entrance passage leads E from the NE angle of the cloister. N of this is a large room (int. dims 6.6m x 6.6m) with a fireplace in the N wall and a doorway at the E end of the N wall leading to a garderobe (int. dims 6.6m N-S; 4.5m E-W), which projects N and E of the ranges and had five lights.
The refectory (int. dims 12.4m E-W; 6.4m N-S) with five windows, including the remains of a readers window in the N wall, is in the N range and entered from a passage at W which separates it from the foundations of the kitchen. The foundations of a later wing (int. dims 16.4m N-S; 4.5m E-W) with the remains of an oven project N from the W end of the N range, to which it is not bonded.
The W range consists of two rooms, the S of which (int. dims 7.6m N-S; 4.8m E-W) has a doorway to the cloister and two on the W wall, which also has a single light. The N room (int. dims 4m N-S; 4.8m E-W) is entered from the cloister, was vaulted, and has a single light in the W wall. A connecting passage goes N to the kitchens, with a garderobe tower (ext. dims 2.5m x 2.5m) surviving to two stories off the passage to the W. A night stairs leads from the NW angle of the cloister garth to dormitories which do not survive over the W range. A small, old graveyard (dims c. 25m E-W; c. 10-20m N-S) where many of the headstones have been recorded (Crawford 1916) is attached to the N, while a new graveyard is laid out to the S.
The structure is now a National Monument. Archaeological testing (93E0173) to the N failed to record any archaeological features (Crumlish 1994), and testing (03E0166) for an extension of the graveyard to the S had a similar result (Read 2006). (MacKenna and Scott 1898-9; Anon. 1914, 52-63; O'Connell 1937; Leask 1960, vol. 3, 129, 149-51; Conlon 1988, 118-19; Harbison 1970, 211-12; Harbison 2002, 47-50)

This is a National Monument in state guardianship: No. 69

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 September 2008
Amended: 3 January 2020

References

Kelly, L. 2019 Franciscans in County Leitrim: 1507-c. 1800. in In Kelly, L. and Scott, B. Leitrim: History and Society, 195-220. Dublin, Geography Publications

Read, C. 2006 Creevelea, Dromahair: no archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 301, No. 1107. Bray, Wordwell

Crawford, H. S. 1916c Creevelea Abbey. Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, vol. 9, 519-25.

Conlon, P. 1988 Franciscan Ireland. Dublin. The Lilliput Press.

Murphy, Rev. D. 1892 The Shrine of St. Caillin of Fenagh. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 22, 151-3.

MacKenna, Rev. J. and Scott, W.A. 1898-9 The Franciscan Friary of Creevelea, in the Barony of Breffny, Co. Leitrim. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 2nd Series, 5, 101-201.

Leask, H.G. 1960 (Reprint 1971, 1978 and 1985) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. III. Medieval gothic the last phases. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.

Harbison, P. 1970 Guide to the national monuments in the Republic of Ireland. Dublin. Gill and Macmillan.

Harbison, P. 2002 Our treasure of antiquities, Beranger and Bigari's antiquarian sketching tour of Connacht in 1779. Bray. Wordwell.

O'Connell, P. 1937 The Diocese of Kilmore: its history and antiquities. Dublin. Browne and Nolan.

Crawford, H.S. 1916a Miscellanea - Carvings in the cloisters at Creevelea Abbey, County Leitrim. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 46, 177-9.

Anon. 1914 82nd annual report from the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland for the year ending 31st March 1914, 35-63. London. HMSO.

Crumlish, R. 1994 Creevelea. Adjacent to abbey. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1993: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 51, no. 143. Bray. Wordwell.