Clare Abbey

Situated at the N end of a slight N-S ridge on the W bank of the River Fergus with wide views all around. The Ennis-Limerick railway line runs N-S just 15m to the W. The abbey was founded by the Augustinians in 1189 under the patronage of Donal Mór O’Brien, king of Thomond, and was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. It was known as ‘de Forgio’ from the name of the river (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 162) and became an important ecclesiastical centre in the medieval diocese of Killaloe (McInerney 2014, 82). In 1278 the abbey was the scene of a great slaughter between various factions of the O’Brien family (named ‘Battle 1278’ on the OS 6-inch map). After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1541, it passed to various members of the O’Brien family, but the Canons seem to have lived on in the abbey until about 1650. Some parts of the single-aisled church date to the late 12th century but the majority of the existing buildings date to the 15th century when the Meic Craith lineage held the abbacy. It was probably in the reign of Teige Acomhad O’Brien, around 1461, that the church was repaired, the well-preserved E window inserted, the tower built, and the domestic buildings with their unusual floral window at the SE corner added (Harbison 1992, 58-9).

The church (int. dims. 37.38m E-W; 7.1m N-S; ext. dims. 39.18m E-W; 8.95m N-S) is built of coursed limestone and is aligned roughly WNW-ESE. A number of features exist in the N wall. 11m from the W end is a pointed doorway with a hood moulding. Two two-light windows are almost centrally placed along the N wall with a single lancet window between them. E of this is a blocked up doorway, a single lancet with a pointed embrasure and close to the E corner, a blind rectangular light which would have been below the ground level of the church.

The S wall of the church has a small round-headed light with external rebate high in the W end. A small round-headed doorway leads from the nave to the cloister and a pointed door led from the chancel to the night stairs which no longer exists. A low pointed doorway at the top of the night stairs led onto the wall-walk of the church. A large pointed window embrasure in the S chancel wall was blocked and replaced by a narrow flat-headed embrasure with an aumbry at the bottom. The E window is a fine three-light window with reticulated tracery.

The tower (4.9m E-W) was inserted in the middle of the church, each pier (Wth 1.3m) projecting 1.5m from the church walls. At first-floor level there is access to the wall-walks of the N and S walls. A rectangular light looks onto the nave and an ogee-headed light overlooks the chancel. At second floor level there are twin-light ogee-headed windows on the N and S walls. The third floor has ogee-headed lights at W and E. The parapet overhead has been completely restored. The tower masonry is more regularly coursed than that of the church with smaller stones and good quoins.

The cloister (26.25m N-S; 25.6.1m E-W) is defined only by the foundations of the E range and the gapped wall of the S range. A row of holes for horizontal timbers was set into the external W wall of the cloister at ceiling height. Some post-hole alignments found during excavation outside this wall are likely to have supported corresponding uprights of 13th and 14th century ‘soft’ buildings attached to the stonework of the abbey (Hull and Joubert 2008, 22). The E wall of the E range survives up to 2m in height with a doorway to the cloister at the N end and a small light at the S end. The S gable survives with its unusual floral window.

The S range had the kitchen at the W end and the refectory at E with a large chimney between them with fireplaces to the E and W. There is an inserted twin-light ogee-headed window with a flat-arched embrasure in the W gable. The reader’s window in the refectory can be seen externally as a lancet window. Over the refectory at first-floor level there are two embrasures for windows to the S and three on the N overlooking the cloister.

A later wall extends E from the NE angle of the church (L 27.45m; Wth 0.75m; H up to 2.5m). It has a different orientation to that of the church and its E end veers slightly to the N. This may relate to a possible chapel depicted adjoining the abbey in this area on a sketch by Thomas Dyneley in 1681 (Ó Dálaigh 1998, 57).

Excavation of an area immediately adjacent to the abbey in 2005 (Hull and Joubert 2008, 24) revealed that the community had access to a high-status material culture such as glazed pottery from France. Some pieces of lead (possibly window calmes) suggest that the abbey’s windows were glazed (McInerney 2014, 82). A road (CL033-120002-) running N-S outside the cloister to the W yielded dates in the 13th and 14th century (Hull and Joubert 2008, 22). Testing in the E of the same field in 2007 (licence no. 07E0703) produced no archaeological material (Hull 2010, 33, no. 153). Clareabbey is a national monument in State care, no. 197.