Aghaboe Priory, Dominican friary in County Laois, Ireland

Aghaboe Priory consists of stone ruins that include a church with a three-light window in its east wall and doorways along the north and west sides. The remains display the basic structure of the religious complex that once functioned here.

Cainnech founded the monastery around 560, and it became a bishop's seat for Ossory from about 1052 to 1111 and again from 1152 to 1190. Vikings raided it in 845 and 913, and it burned to the ground in 1116. Rebuilt for Augustinian canons in 1234, it was refounded as a Dominican priory in 1382 and suppressed in 1540.

The priory functioned as a place where monks engaged in scholarly work, copying religious texts and studying mathematics and the stars. This intellectual life made it a center of learning for the surrounding area.

The ruins sit along the Laois Heritage Trail with public access to the grounds, located roughly 30 minutes southwest of Portlaoise. The site sits in a rural setting and is straightforward to reach if you follow the marked paths.

Gothic tracery windows from the friary's south nave wall and east transept were removed in 1773 for Frederick Trench's private garden at Ballinakill, where they remain. The founder is also recorded as Florence MacGillapatrick, and the community was small, about 12 to 15 brothers.