Ardfert Abbey Friary, Medieval Franciscan friary in County Kerry, Ireland

Ardfert Abbey Friary is a ruined Franciscan friary in Ardfert, County Kerry, built around 1253. Its church has a long nave and chancel, with nine lancet windows in the south wall below five later niche tombs, and a five-light window in the east gable. A five-storey residential tower, unusual for a Franciscan house, was added at the west end in the 15th century.

Thomas Fitzmaurice, the first Baron Kerry, founded the friary in 1253 on land where monks had lived and worshipped in earlier centuries. His choice to build here reflected respect for the spiritual continuity of the place.

The friary reflects the presence of Franciscan monks who built their community on ground already sacred to earlier monastic life. The arrangement of nine narrow windows on the south wall shows how the monks designed their prayer space to balance light with contemplation.

The ruins stand in Ardfert village, near Ardfert Cathedral, whose nine south-wall lancets the friary's choir windows copy. The cloister arcades survive only on the east and south sides; the east walk has four groups of three Tudor arches, dated to about 1470. The south transept, finished in 1453 by Donald Fitz Bohan, appears to have had an open entrance porch.

In 1310, the friars here faced physical attacks from Bishop Nicol Ó Samradáin of Ardfert and Aghadoe during a dispute over authority. This violent clash reveals the tensions that sometimes erupted between competing powers in medieval Ireland.