Historic SiteCounty LeitrimOPW Heritage Ireland4.7
Free for everyone; an open-air monument with no staff, tickets or booking. No membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
OPW lists a car park but states no charge; the gravel parking area is on the lane beside the friary and the modern graveyard, reached from the R287 south-west of Dromahair. On foot, the Sligo Way leads about 1 km from beside the Abbey Manor Hotel in Dromahair over a footbridge and round a sheep pasture. No bus service is named by an official source.
Driving pin: the parking area on the lane, 17 m from OPW's own pin on the friary.
On a rise above the River Bonet just west of Dromahair, Creevelea was the last Franciscan friary founded in Ireland before Henry VIII's dissolution, and so unusually uniform in design. Margaret O'Brien of Thomond and her husband Eoghan O'Rourke, Lord of West Breifne, founded it in 1508; it was consecrated in 1511, and both are buried here. Accidentally burned in 1536, when many books and sacred vessels were lost, it was restored by their son, but the friars were expelled more than once and finally driven out by Cromwellian soldiers in 1642. The church of nave, transept, choir and tower survives almost complete, with a refined east window, and around the cloister are the chapter house, sacristy and domestic rooms; the massive bell tower became living quarters in the 17th century. Look in the cloister arcade for two carvings of St Francis, one preaching to the birds. Reviewers recommend the riverside walk from Dromahair on the Sligo Way or parking beside the modern graveyard.
An unguided open-air national monument in OPW's care with no staff and no facilities. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.
OPW's status line: access available during daylight hours.
A large ruin with steps, uneven ground and graves; the tower's upper levels are inaccessible. Dogs are not allowed on the Sligo Way's farmland sections, including the riverside path from Dromahair. No toilets.
Dogs: Dogs are not allowed on the Sligo Way, the waymarked trail that passes the friary from Dromahair.
Photo: Creevelea Friary from the south, its church gable, tower and domestic ranges framed by tall yews, with the Leitrim hills beyond. Aaron Mc Guinness (Disciple1974), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creevelea_Abbey.JPG. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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78.5 km from Lough Talt to Dromahair (Sport Ireland; managed by Sligo County Council and Sligo LEADER Partnership). The route text: 'Pass the ruined Creevelea Abbey on the right-hand side where the road descends past a cottage. Follow a pleasant woodland path leading to a concrete footbridge. Enter Dromahair village beside the Abbey Hotel.' Dogs are not allowed.
