The oldest yew in Ireland
At the centre of the cloister grows a yew as old as the friary built around it, and Heritage Ireland reckons it is probably the oldest yew tree in the country. If you have only twenty minutes at Muckross, spend them here, in the small square garth the whole house was arranged around. Local folklore says a miraculous image of the Virgin lies beneath the roots and that anyone who harms the tree meets swift retribution; the eighteenth-century traveller Charles Smith, less superstitiously, called it one of the tallest yews he had ever seen.
Muckross Abbey (Irish: Mainistir Locha Léin or Mainistir Mhucrois) was founded in 1448 by the Gaelic chieftain Donal McCarthy Mor. ‘Abbey’ is a misnomer: this was a Franciscan friary, home to Observantine friars who preached and begged in the surrounding parishes rather than shutting themselves away behind a wall. It is roofless now, but the walls, the central bell tower and the two-storey domestic ranges have survived almost whole. Entry is free, there is nobody on the gate, and it sits a few minutes off the N71 in Killarney National Park.
Founding, and a roof stripped for spite
Local tradition traces the friary to a vision of Cormac MacCarthy Mor, Donal’s great-grandfather and King of Desmond. Unable to settle on a site, Cormac is said to have dreamed of building on Carraig an Chiúil, the Rock of Music. His men searched in vain until they reached Irrelagh and heard singing drifting from a girl on a stone; that, they decided, was the place. The Friary of Irrelagh was established in 1448, and a papal indulgence in 1468 helped pay for the rest.
The peace never lasted long. English forces sacked the friary during the Desmond Rebellions of the late sixteenth century; the friars came back in 1612 and had it restored by 1617. Then in 1652 General Edmund Ludlow’s Cromwellian troops stripped the roof to make the place uninhabitable, killed several of the friars and drove the survivors to France. It stood empty for generations. In 1929 the first high mass since penal times was said in the ruins, drawing thousands.
The cloister and the upper floor
Muckross keeps a textbook Franciscan plan: a long nave for the congregation, a chancel with a broad east window for the altar, and a central tower dropped in between them that once held the bell. Look for the piscina and the stone sedilia set into the chancel wall, and the tomb recesses beside them. The vaulted cloister on the north side, its arcade of arches ringing the yew, is the best-kept part of the whole site. Fixed, safe stairways let you climb to the upper storey and walk the friars’ own rooms – the refectory, the dormitory with faint traces of wall painting, the kitchen and the Prior’s house. Not many Irish ruins let you go up.
A graveyard still in use
The grounds are a working graveyard, used for local burials to this day, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they became the resting place of Kerry’s Gaelic poets. Three lie here: Geoffrey O’Donoghue, Aodhagán Ó Rathaille and Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin. The rebel poet Piaras Feiritéar, hanged at Killarney in 1653, is buried in the surrounding ground, and the War of Independence leader Neilus O’Leary is among the later interments.
One local story is worth the telling. A nineteenth-century Muckross landlord is said to have ordered graveyard soil dug up to enrich his garden; a woman in black appeared, struck him so hard his head turned sideways, and vanished, leaving him unable ever to face forward again. True or not, it tells you how the consecrated ground is regarded here.
Getting there and parking
The abbey is free and open in daylight hours, with no tours and no ticket booth – you wander at your own pace. There is a small lay-by directly opposite, but it holds only a handful of cars and fills fast; the larger car park at Muckross House, about a kilometre away, is the safer bet. Follow the trail signs between the two rather than walking on the N71, which carries fast traffic and no footpath.
The best approach is on foot anyway. The easy 2.5 km Muckross Abbey loop runs through old woodland from the Muckross House car park to the abbey and on toward Torc Waterfall, taking about three-quarters of an hour at a stroll. The ground-floor cloister, courtyard and nave are level; the upper floor is reached by stairs and is not suitable for wheelchairs or buggies. Wear something with grip, because the flagstones turn greasy after rain.
Nearby
- Muckross House – Victorian mansion with period rooms, gardens and a traditional working farm, at the other end of the abbey loop.
- Torc Waterfall – a 20 m cascade reached by a short, shaded climb from the loop.
- Ladies View and Aghadoe – viewpoints and old ecclesiastical ruins on the Ring of Kerry.
- Gap of Dunloe – a mountain pass for jaunting cars and cyclists, about half an hour’s drive.
Aim for late morning, when the sun comes through the cloister arches and picks out the yew, and give the place a full half-hour rather than the ten-minute look most tour stops allow.