Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [485]
The interiors are stunning and house a superb art collection ranging from lesser Dutch masters to 20th-century Irish painters. There’s also a wonderfully elegant garden and a classic car museum.
Mellifont Abbey
In its Anglo-Norman prime, Mellifont Abbey ( 041-982 6459; www.heritageireland.ie; Tullyallen; adult/child €3/2; visitor centre 10am-6pm May-Sep; ) was the Cistercians’ first and most magnificent centre in the country. Although the ruins are highly evocative and well worth exploring, they still don’t do real justice to the site’s former splendour.
In the mid-12th century, Irish monastic orders had grown a little too fond of the good life and were not averse to a bit of corruption. In 1142, Malachy, bishop of Down (later canonised for his troubles), was at the end of his tether; he invited a group of hard-core monks from Clairvaux in France to set up shop in a remote location, where they would act as a sobering influence on the local clergy. The Irish monks didn’t quite get on with their French guests, and the latter soon left for home. Still, the construction of Mellifont – named for the Latin mellifons (honey fountain) – continued, and within 10 years, nine more Cistercian monasteries were established. Mellifont was eventually the mother house for 21 lesser monasteries; at one point as many as 400 monks lived here.
Mellifont not only brought fresh ideas to the Irish religious scene, it also heralded a new style of architecture. For the first time in Ireland, monasteries were built with the formal layout and structure that was being used on the Continent. Only fragments of the original settlement remain, but the plan of the extensive monastery can easily be traced.
Like many other Cistercian monasteries, the buildings clustered around an open cloister. To the northern side of the cloister are the remains of a principally 13th-century cross-shaped church. To the south, the chapter house has been partially floored with medieval glazed tiles, originally found in the church. The refectory, kitchen and warming room – the only place where the austere monks could enjoy the warmth of a fire – would also have been here. The eastern range would once have held the monks’ sleeping quarters.
Mellifont’s most recognisable building, and one of the finest pieces of Cistercian architecture in Ireland, is the lavabo, an octagonal washing house for the monks. It was built in the early 13th century and used lead pipes to bring water from the river. A number of other buildings would have surrounded this main part of the abbey.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a fortified Tudor manor house was built on the site in 1556 by Edward Moore, using materials scavenged from the demolition of many of the buildings.
In 1603, this house was the scene of a poignant and crucial turning point in Irish history. After the disastrous Battle of Kinsale, the vanquished Hugh O’Neill, last of the great Irish chieftains, was given shelter here by Sir Garret Moore until he surrendered to the English lord deputy Mountjoy. After his surrender, O’Neill was pardoned but, despairing of his position, fled to the Continent in 1607 with other old-Irish leaders in the Flight of the Earls. In 1727, the site was abandoned altogether.
The visitor centre next to the site describes monastic life in detail. The ruins themselves are always open and there’s good picnicking next to the rushing stream. The abbey is about