Molana Priory

Located on an island (diam. c. 70-80m) at the W side of the N-S Blackwater river at a point where it is turning from E-W to N-S, and c. 200m N of where the W-E Glendine stream joins the Blackwater. The island was connected to the mainland at Lackaroe, S of the Glendine, by causeways and bridges in 1806 (Anon, 1903, 313). Although privately owned it is open to visitors daily in June and July, and Tuesday to Thursday from Easter to the end of September, with parking available near Templepmichael Church (WA037-013001-).

This is an early ecclesiastical site founded in the 6th century by St Molana, which was known as Dairinis Maelanfaid - the oakwood island of Molana, and two abbots of the 8th century are recorded (Power 1932a, 143). It adopted the Augustinian rule in the 12th century, possibly when it became associated with the Anglo-Norman lord Raymond le Gros, who was said to be buried there. The association is unlikely, but his reputed effigial grave-slab (Stalley 1991, 11) is now lost. Power (1932a, 152) illustrates another graveslab that is also untraceable. The abbey declined in the later middle ages and was suppressed in 1541. It was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1580s, whose first tennant, Thomas Harriot, had participated in Raleigh's Roanoke colony in north America (Klingelhofer and Lyttleton 2010), but it is unlikely that Harriot occupied the site.

The remains are substantial with most features surviving almost complete. The remains consist of an undifferentiated nave and chancel church with a cloister and conventual buildings to the S. The nave (int. dims. c. 17m x 7.6m), which incorporates the masonry of an early church at the W end, was extended by a chancel (int. dims. 19m x 7.6m) built in the early 13th century which has eleven lancet windows in the long walls. The E chancel window was modified as a smaller embrasure and it is now largely destroyed. A sacristy or abbot’s house of two storeys (int. dims.7.25m N-S; 5.25m E-W) was added N of the chancel. It has a newel stairs to the first floor at the NW angle.

The cloister (dims. 19.65m N-S; c. 14.75m E-W) has no arcade, but corbels to support the roof of one are on all the surrounding walls. The E range (int. dims. 18.8m N-S; 5.25m E-W) is not vaulted and features four plain doorways in the W wall which lead to the cloister. The E range probably contained the chapterhouse and other offices with a dormitory overhead (now destroyed). The refectory (int. dims. 21.25m E-W; 6.05m N-S) at S is largely destroyed but the projecting reader’s window on the S wall survives. The kitchens (ext. dims. c. 15.3m N-S; 6.56m E-W) at W are also in ruins but a stone-lined well (int. diam. 1.55m; D 0.9m) survives outside it to the W.

A defensive wall (L 15m; max. H 1.5m) extending SE of the E range includes the remains of a gateway (Wth of passage 2.4m; L 3.05m). There is a record of a wall-painting in the ‘south-facing scriptorium’ (J.C. 1908), probably the refectory, but it was not noted at time of inspection. (Power 1898a, 209-12; Anon. 1903; Grattan-Flood 1916; Power 1932a; Harbison 1992b, 86-7)

Anon. (1903) Proceedings, JRSAI 32, 313-4.