Religious house - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture on the highest point of a low hill, within a graveyard (LF010-062002-). The nunnery of 'Cluain Bronaich' is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick and the deaths of a number of abbesses are recorded in the annals from 933 up until 1163, after which it drops into obscurity (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 314-15). In 1397 Denis Odunchun is recorded as the perpetual vicar (Cal. papal letters 1904, vol. 5, 105) and in 1444 Marcus Oforgail was appointed (ibid. 1912, vol. 9, 429). A church is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Granard barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.i.47). A report in 1944 (ITA Survey) recorded that the ruins of the nunnery were removed in the 19th century to build a nearby bridge. Described in 1982 (SMR file) as the grass-covered footings of a rectangular structure aligned E-W, probably the remains of a church. The W end was obscured by stones that had been dumped there as a result of clearance in the past. The line of the N wall extended eastwards beyond the presumed line of the E wall, suggesting the presence of another structure immediately to the E (ibid.). All that now survives are the wall-footings of the possible church (ext. dims. 13.2m E-W; 8.5m N-S; wall T 0.84m). A possible cross (LF010-062004-) lay to the SE.

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan, Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 4 June 2013

References

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

British Library, Cotton Manuscripts, Augustus I. Charts of the baronies of Granard, Rathcline, Longford, Ardagh, Shrule and Moydow, County Longford. London. (microfilm, NLI p. 1364)

Irish Tourist Association. Surveys undertaken in the 1940s for the Irish Tourist Association (now Fáilte Ireland) relating to ‘Natural features, antiquities, historic associations etc.' Extracts from these surveys were copied into the Topographical files of the Office of Public Works and these have been incorporated into the Sites and Monuments Record files (National Monuments Service).

Cal. papal letters - Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: papal letters, 1198-1484 [etc.] (London, 1893-)

SMR file - Sites and monuments record files in the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.