Dunbrody Abbey

It’s been called the “Noblest pile of all”as it has the best ruins of any abbey of that period. Dunbrody is a Cistercian Abbey. Monks wore white robes and they prayed, worked and helped the poor and gave the people protection. It was common for the Normans to build a monastery or an abbey in the new area they had taken over. The first Cistercian Abbey built in Ireland was in Mellifont Co.Louth by St.Malachy. He first gave the Dunbrody land to the Cistercians of Buildwas in Shropshire in England. A monk called Alan was sent over to Dunbrody to check out the new site.He found the place to be wild and desolate and found the natives to be ferocious.

The monks of Buildwas then gave the lands to St. Mary's of Dublin and began the building of Dunbrody in 1182. The Abbey was now known as the Port of St.Mary's as it offered safety to people in trouble or on the run from their enemies. Hervey, even though married, became a monk in the Abbey.He died there at the age of 75 in 1205. In 1195 Pope Celestine placed the Abbey under the protection of St.Peter and St. Paul. There is a story of where the Abbot of Dunbrody and two of his monks put a monk from nearby Tintern Abbey in prison for three days and robbed him of two horses and money. There was trouble between the two abbeys over what land each owned. Some call it the Bloody Lane.It could also because of a fierce battle fought here between the Etchinghams and Chichesters over the abbey lands as the Chichesters became owners through Jane Etchingham's marriage to Arthur Chichester in 1660. He knew that the protestant King Henry 8th was going to suppress or destroy Dunbrody Abbey. Alexander brought with him the baptismal font from the Abbey and this font is still in use today in St.Mogue's Church. On the 6th may 1536 Henry 8th ordered Dunbrody Abbey to be suppressed or banned.The abbey was plundered and made unfit for any monks to come back and live there. Dunbrody Abbey was now bare and its religious life at an end.

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