Religious house nunnery - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On the summit of an esker within view of the monastery of Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly (OF005-004----) c. 4.5km to the ENE. A religious house of nuns was founded by Caoireach Dheargáin who died in AD 577-8 (AFM). Her importance can be gauged from the attempts to trace her ancestry variously to the Ceinéal Laoighre of Meath, the Dál nAraidhe of NE Ulster and the Oirghialla of Ulster, but no solid facts of her life are known (Ó Riain 2011, 151-2). Her foundation was known as Cluain-bairenn, and the names of seven other abbesses are known between AD 713 and 1066 (Gwynne and Hadcock 1970, 315). References cease in the 11th century, and its demise may be connected with the foundation of a nunnery (OF005-029----) at Clonmacnoise before AD 1026. The church at Cloonburren is described as standing in 1641 when the Bishops of Meath and Clonfert jointly owned over 500 profitable acres there, but the land had reverted to the Bishop of Meath in the 1660s (Simington 1949, 64).
The conserved foundations of a rectangular structure (ext. dims at least 6.75m E-W; 6.65m N-S) defined by low walls (T 0.8m; H 0.6-0.7m) remain, of which only the W wall is original. It may be a mortuary enclosure but it is within a subrectangular graveyard (RO056-007001-) (dims c. 70m NE-SW; c. 60m NW-SE) defined by drystone walls. An almost complete cross-slab (RO056-007003-) and fragments of nine others are displayed in the graveyard, but four recorded slabs (Macalister 1912, fig. 2; 1945, vol. 2, 18-19, Nos 556-8; Crawford 1913, 160 b-d; Stokes 1872, Pl. 43, Fig. 109) are not present now (Herity et al. 1997, 115-6).
Near the church is a cross-base with moulded corners (RO056-007007-) (dims of top 0.92m x 0.46m) which was moved from a position at the roadside c. 80m to the SSW (RO056-006----), and now supports a fragment of a cross (RO056-007004-) (dims 0.3m x 0.15m; H 0.45m) with dog-tooth decoration on a side-panel and a secondary carving in low relief on the N face. A fragment (RO056-007005-) (L 0.6m) of the wayside cross (RO056-005----) has been moved from its original position, c. 400m to the W to the graveyard. There are fragments of dressed medieval masonry (RO056-007008-) within the graveyard, including the head of a round-headed window.
Archaeological testing c. 60m E (04E0692) and c. 90m SE (04E0874) of the graveyard failed to produce any related archaeological material (Carey 2007a; 2007b).

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Carey, A. 2007b Carrowphadeen. No archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2004: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 376, No. 1445. Dublin, Wordwell

Carey, A. 2007a Cloonburren. No archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2004: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 376, No. 1449. Dublin, Wordwell

Ó Riain, P. 2011 A dictionary of Irish Saints. Dublin. Four Courts Press.

Stokes, M. (ed.) 1872 Christian inscriptions in the Irish language, chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie L.L.D., 2 vols. Dublin. The Royal Historical and Archaeological Society of Ireland.

Crawford, H.S. 1913 A descriptive list of early cross-slabs and pillars. (cont.) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 43, 151-69, 261-5, 326-34.

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

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1949 Books of survey and distribution. County of Roscommon. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Macalister, R.A.S. 1912 Some cross-slabs in the neighbourhood of Athlone. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 42, 27-31.

Macalister, R.A.S. 1945 Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Herity, M., Kelly, D. and Mattenberger, U. 1997 List of Early Christian cross-slabs in seven north-western counties. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 127, 89-124.