St Fintan kept his monks on bread of woody barley and what one annalist called ‘clayey water of clay’, and the community at Clonenagh had no cow, so no milk and no butter either. When the monks complained they couldn’t do a day’s work on it, a deputation of local clergy led by St Canice of Aghaboe came to plead their case. Fintan relented – for the monks. He kept the fast himself until he died. That severity is why the annalists styled him the ‘Father of the Irish Monks’ and compared him to St Benedict, and it’s the thread that still runs through this quiet roadside site a few kilometres east of Mountrath in County Laois.
St Fintan and the monastery
Fintan of Clonenagh (c. 526–603) was a disciple of Columba of Terryglass and founded the monastery here around 548. It grew into a serious centre of learning, sending out monks who made their own marks elsewhere – Colmán of Oughaval and Comgall, the founder of Bangor, were among those who trained under him. Local folklore holds that seven churches once stood at Clonenagh; archaeologists have found evidence for two beyond the one that survives, so the legend isn’t pure invention.
Be honest with yourself about scale before you go, though. This is not Clonmacnoise. The original monastery was destroyed by the Danes in 838 – its abbot Aed was carried off and martyred in Munster – and plundered again in 937, and almost nothing of the early settlement stands above ground. The roofless church you see dates from the 15th century, a modest building about 9 metres by 6.5, used as a Protestant church late in its life before it was left to the weather.
What’s actually here
The interest is in the smaller things, and in knowing the stories behind them.
- St Fintan’s tree – a sycamore planted in the late 18th or early 19th century that became a place of veneration; people once pressed coins into its bark as offerings, which slowly weakened it. A storm brought the trunk down in 1994, but it has thrown up vigorous new shoots from the base and lives on.
- The cross-slabs – thirteen inscribed early Christian cross-slabs, turned up during a clean-up of the graveyard in 1988 and now set against the wall just inside the gate. They’re the most tangible link to the early monastery and easy to miss if you don’t look for them.
- St Fintan’s holy well – beside the monastery site, dedicated to the saint and capped back in the 19th century. Its pattern days are 17 February (Fintan’s feast) and 29 June, and folklore long held that a sacred trout lived in its waters.
Visiting
There’s no centre, no signs to speak of and no facilities – it’s an open ruin you can walk into at any time, free of charge, through a gate (with a stile beside it) in the roadside wall. The ground inside is uneven and can be overgrown, so wear proper shoes and watch for loose stones; keep dogs on a lead, as it’s a working graveyard.
It sits on the R445, the old main road, a few kilometres east of Mountrath, with a small lay-by to pull into. Sort out food and toilets in Mountrath first, which has a few cafés and a bakery.
If you’re making a day of the Laois midlands, the Rock of Dunamase, Emo Court, Heywood Gardens and the bog walk at Abbeyleix are all within about twenty minutes. Come late in the day, when the low sun rakes across the old limestone, and give the tree a look – a monument that fell down and decided to keep growing is a fair emblem for the whole place.