Religious house - Trinitarians

The National Monuments Service's description

Trinitarian abbey in the town of Adare described in the Urban Survey of Limerick (Bradley et. al. 1989, 36-9) as following: 'This monastery appears to have been founded by Geoffrey de Marisco before 1226 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 217). In the taxation of 1302-6 it was valued at 40s. It was dissolved in 1539 and in 1595 it was granted to Sir Henry Wallop (ibid.). In 1811 it was reconstructed by the earl of Dunraven for use as the Roman Catholic parish church. The surviving remains consist of parts of the south wall of the church, a crossing tower and parts of the N range of claustral buildings. These have been greatly modified; most of the doors and windows are modern and the masonry is generally roughly coursed limestone rubble. There is a refurbished dovecot at the extreme north west corner of the church grounds.

The Church
This may have been a cruciform building with crossing tower although the existence of a south transept is not certain (Hewson 1897-1900, 30). The north wall has been removed and the modern Catholic church has been built onto the north side of the medieval nave and chancel. The latter now serve as a south aisle for the modern church. Part of the south wall appears to be the only original part of the medieval building and this contains the only original window which is a cusped twin-light pointed window with elongated quatrefoil above the lights. Below the window there is a contemporary ogee-headed piscina. Three other recesses in this wall hold a round arched recess, a modern twin-light window and the modern doorway. According to Hewson (1897-190, 30) the original west wall of the nave stood c.3.Sm east of the present west wall and contained a triple light window with intersecting tracery. He also noted that the south wall had stepped battlements with projecting dripstones but these were removed and replaced in the 19th century. Hewson (ibid, 29) states that the east window of the chancel was 'of three lights … of the early pointed type'. The east wall stood 50cm west of the present east wall.
The rectangular crossing tower consists of one floor and wall-walk above the crossing with a projecting turret on the south east. The tower rises on large plain rectangular piers and is covered by a quadripartite vault. Tall pointed arches, c.7.5m high, open to the east and west, and c. 6.5m high on the north and south. The south arch is blocked and has a twin-light window similar to that in the south wall of the nave. The main chamber of the tower is approached via a spiral stairs in the north-west pier. It is lit by a tall rectangular window and a splayed rectangular loop in the north wall. There is an ogee-headed window and a loop in the west wall, a rectangular window with window seats in the south wall and a rectangular window and loop in the east wall. Rectangular doorways at the south ends of the east and west walls give access to spiral stairs descending to mural chambers with pointed vaults in' the east and west walls just below the level of the vault. The spiral stairs descending to the mural chamber on the east also communicates with a small chamber in the projecting turret on the south east angle. This rectangular room is lit by a splayed rectangular loop in the south wall: it also has a garderobe and a door leading to another chamber above. This room is lit by two splayed loops in the south wall and one each in the east and north walls. The battlemented wall walk of the tower is reached via mural stairs in the north wall and the tower has raised turrets at each angle.

The Cloister
Dunraven's plan (fig. 7) appears to indicate that part of the north and east ranges survived but the building of the modern church has destroyed the east range. The north and south walls of the north range seem to be incorporated into the modern school buildings with a small tower at the east end and a larger tower at the west end of the range. The east tower is now of two floors although it may have had three floors originally as there is a row of corbels above traces of a vault over the ground floor. The original stairs was in the west wall and the first floor has a barrel vault with wattle centering. The west tower has three floors with a possible loft above, but it is greatly altered internally. The first floor had two rooms with pointed vaults and there are small wall chambers between the ground and first floor and between the first and second levels. The second floor has a large single chamber lit by a single-light rectangular window with. segmental rear arch and wattle centering in the south wall, and by an ogee headed window in the north wall'.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 04 November 2019

References

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1989 Urban archaeological survey - county Limerick (3 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

ASIAP - Archaeological Survey of Ireland Aerial Photographs (c. 1996 - c. 2010).

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

Hewson, G.J. 1897-1900 Adare and some of its ancient buildings. Limerick Field Club Journal 1, no. 1, 32-46; 1, no. 2, 19-37.