Moyne Abbey, Franciscan monastery ruins north of Ballina, Ireland.
Moyne Abbey is a ruined Franciscan friary built in the late Irish Gothic style, with a church and domestic buildings arranged around a central cloister. Its east window has switchline tracery, and the west doorway is a 17th-century insertion. The tower top is still reached by stairs.
Moyne Abbey was founded before 1455, during the papacy of Nicholas V, by the MacWilliam Burke family with Nehemias O'Donoghue as initiator, and consecrated in 1462. It was the first Observant Franciscan house in Ireland. In 1590 Sir Richard Bingham, Lord President of Connacht, burned it; friars returned and the community moved to Kilmacshalgan in the 18th century, where the last friar, Thomas Burke, died in 1800.
Moyne was the first house of the Observant Franciscans in Ireland and became one of their main centres for training young friars. Its Irish name is Mainistir na Maighne, and the community was repeatedly chosen as the meeting place for provincial chapters. The friars stayed on after the Reformation despite persecution, and the last of them, Thomas Burke, died in 1800.
The site is freely accessible throughout the year and is located near Ballina. A thorough visit takes about an hour to explore the full layout.
The tower top, still reached by stairs, gives a view across Killala Bay to the Ox Mountains and, to the southwest, the summit of Nephin above Lough Conn. From it the friars could also see Killala's cathedral bell tower and round tower.
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