About
Just over a kilometre from Ballylongford in north Kerry, above Ballylongford Creek, John O'Connor Kerry, Lord of Kerry, built this Franciscan friary for the strict Observant friars in 1470, perhaps on the site of a church of St Lachtín, and was buried here in 1485. His son built Carrigafoyle Castle nearby, and after its siege in 1580 soldiers killed three friars before the high altar; the friars came back in 1629 before Cromwellian troops sacked the house in 1652. The long church keeps a four-light traceried east window and a triple sedilia so like those at Adare and Askeaton that one mason may have carved all three, while north of the choir a two-storey range held the refectory below a dormitory lit by thirty windows. The silver processional cross commissioned here in 1479 was ploughed up by a farmer in 1871 and is now in the National Museum of Ireland. Reviewers enjoy exploring the dormitory wing, crypts and carved details in a well-kept graveyard with information panels, signposted from Ballylongford.
Open in daylightFrom OPW Heritage Ireland's published times
- Open any reasonable time in daylight
Opening times may change at short notice.
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.
A wrought-iron gate at the graveyard's north-east corner, then grass and gravel paths between graves; uneven ground inside the ruin. Information panels on site. The graveyard is still in use. No toilets.
Photo: The ruined church of Lislaughtin Abbey with its tall traceried window, in the graveyard near Ballylongford. Michael G Kenny, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lislaughtin_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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