Historic SiteCounty ClareOPW Heritage Ireland4.7
Free for everyone; an open-air monument with no staff, tickets or booking. No membership card is needed.
Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.
OPW names no car park and gives no directions; reviewers find a few parking spaces just round the corner from the friary in the village, where there are also a pub and a playground. OPW names no bus service.
Driving pin: OPW's own pin on the friary, which Google's listing shares; an information board stands at the entrance from the village.
Quin Friary, on a green rise above Quin village in County Clare, has had a fraught and complex history since the 1200s. The original church burned in 1278, and in 1281 the Anglo-Norman lord Thomas de Clare built a castle on the site, a rise that ended at the battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318. The MacNamaras destroyed his castle and founded the abbey within its ruins in 1350; Síoda Cam MacNamara built the cloisters in 1402 and Maccon MacNamara added the bell tower and Lady chapel in 1430. Dissolved in 1541, the friary passed to the O'Briens, saw Donough Beg O'Brien hanged from its steeple in 1584 and was desecrated by Cromwellian forces in 1651, yet friars returned until the last died in 1820. In state care since 1880, the roofless church keeps its tall tower, de Clare's corner towers survive in the walls, and the dark cloister of the 1400s is among the best preserved Franciscan architecture in Ireland. The friary is free, unstaffed and open daily.
OPW's notice says the friary is open daily 09:30 to 17:00, with no season or closed dates printed; it is an unguided open-air national monument with no staff or facilities. Allow about 35 minutes. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.
The cloister is dark inside and the entrance is not wheelchair accessible by Google's reckoning; the graveyard around and inside the ruins is still in use.
Dogs: Dogs are not permitted on the Mid Clare Way, the official waymarked route through Quin.
Photo: Quin Friary's tower and roofless church and cloister ranges on a green rise above Quin village, with a path leading up to the graveyard wall. Michael Deligan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quin_Franciscan_Friary_in_County_Clare.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Not suitable for dogs
A 144 km waymarked loop in six stages, moderate, managed by Clare Walks; Quin is a stage end between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Crusheen and the trail page names Quin Abbey; about 65 percent on local roads; join in Quin village, no admission or parking; dogs not permitted.
