Dunbrody Abbey ( ga, Mainistir Dhún Bróithe) is a former
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
monastery in
County Wexford
County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
[B. Colfer, ''The Hook Peninsula: County Wexford'', Irish Rural Landscapes: II (Cork University Press 2004)]
pp. 61-68
(Google). The cross-shaped church was built in the 13th century, and the tower was added in the 15th century. With a length of 59m the church is one of the longest in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. The visitor centre is run by the current
Marquess of Donegall
Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Sir ...
and has one of only two full sized hedge mazes in Ireland.
The abbey was dissolved under
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
. The last Abbot of Dunbrody was Alexander Devereux, who became
Bishop of Ferns
The Bishop of Ferns () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the village of Ferns in County Wexford, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishopr ...
in 1539.
History
In 1169 a contingent of Norman knights led by
the King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, invaded Ireland, first conquering the Irish province of Leinster then all of Ireland. In 1171
Henry II led a much larger force into Ireland, taking control and making Ireland a territory of England.
Richard de Clare
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
, one of the important figures in the Norman Conquest, instructed his uncle Herve de Montmorency to found a Cistercian monastery in the County Wexford.
[Leroux-Dhuys, Jean-François. Cistercian Abbeys. Konemann, 1998. P178] Montmorency donated the allotted land to the English Cistercian
Abbey of Buildwas. The Abbey of Buildwas sent a lay brother to survey the land and, after an unfavorable report, Buildwas turned down the gift. The property was then offered to
St. Mary’s Cistercian Abbey in Dublin, which was in the filial line of Clairvaux.
The monks of St. Mary’s were delighted with their new land and they soon sent a community to the site in 1182. Due to its position near a major maritime transportation route, the abbey was placed under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the name Port of St. Mary’s, because of the safety the abbey offered to people in trouble.
The middle of the 13th century was a boom period for the Anglo-Norman colony in Ireland and the Cistercian order shared in this prosperity. The scale and quality of the 13th century buildings constructed at Dunbrody gives a general hint of confidence and well being. The spacious early Gothic church was built sometime around 1210–1240 for the monks of Dunbrody Abbey. Dunbrody, though a relatively small abbey, was very successful until the 16th century and the rise of King Henry VIII. Following his split with the Church of Rome, Henry VIII issued the
Dissolution of the Monasteries through a series of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541. Dunbrody was part of the first round of suppressions in Ireland and was officially dissolved in 1536. The abbey was plundered and made unfit for monks to return. The lead from the roof was melted down by using the wood from the roof. Nine years later, Sir
Osborne Echyngham was given the land and the monastery which he converted into a residence. Owing to the neglect of the private owners of Dunbrody, a massive collapse occurred on Christmas Eve 1852, destroying the south wall of the church and some of the monastery. The abbey lies in ruins until this day.
Architecture
![Plan of Dunbrody Abbey in Wexford, Ireland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Plan_of_Dunbrody_Abbey_in_Wexford%2C_Ireland.jpg)
The church is in the form of a cross on plan, as is usual in Cistercian Abbeys, and has a
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
,
side aisles,
north and south transepts, and
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
. Apartments were formed in the roof over the chapels in the transepts (each transept has three
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
s), one over the north transept (left transept on the plan) was approached by the circular stairs and a passage across the
triforium
A triforium is an interior gallery, opening onto the tall central space of a building at an upper level. In a church, it opens onto the nave from above the side aisles; it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be locate ...
of the north transept. There is also evidence of a floor having at one time been carried over the whole of the north transept. The space over the side chapels of the south transept contained a fireplace and five windows, and over it another floor, probably divided into two apartments, as it contains two fireplaces and has also five windows.
[Extract of Historical and Descriptive Notes Of Dunbrody Abbey, 1910]
The nave was separated from the aisles by an
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
of five
bays. In the north aisle are four large
buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es; it is entirely owing to these buttresses that this wall is preserved. The south arcade and the wall of the south aisle fell in a storm on Christmas Eve 1852. The nave was lit by a row of
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
windows and also three
lights
Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision.
Light or Lights may also refer to:
Illumination
* Light bulb
* Traffic light
Arts and entertainment Music
* Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...
that formed the large west window.
A very remarkable feature is shown in the construction of the
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
. The rules of the Order did not originally permit the erection of a tower, but this prohibition was later removed. In many other similar structures the original transept arches have been used to carry the walls of a tower, however in this case the old arches were not built upon, but new
piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
were built alongside the old, and new arches were formed at the nave and choir, and in this way the stability of the tower was secured.
There were seven bells in the tower plan, indicated by the seven openings for the bell ropes to the ringing chamber through the vault carrying the floor of the tower. There was also a large opening square through which the bells were hoisted.
The range of buildings east of the
cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
garth and south of the church comprises the
sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is usually located ...
and an inner room opening off it. There is here a small apartment with a door giving access from the cloister walk. This apartment, which is usually found in monasteries of this Order, is sometimes described as a prison, but is more likely to have been the book store, a convenient place for keeping books to read in the cloisters. There were several more apartments southwards including the
parlour
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
and
chapter room
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
, and over the whole of this range the
dormitories
A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...
extended, approached by the night stairs in the south transept, and at the other end by the stairs in the passage at the south-east angle of the cloister enclosure.
In the southern range of buildings there is evidence of the position of the
refectory
A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...
by the indication of the reader's desk at one of the windows in south side wall. Although this range is not now divided by cross walls, it is likely that the eastern end was occupied by the
calefactory
The calefactory (also ''warming house'') was an important room or building in a medieval monastery in Western Europe. It was here that a communal fire was kept so that the monks could warm themselves after long hours of study in the (unheated) c ...
, or warming house, and the western end by the
butteries and kitchen. Excavation in the cloister garth has revealed the foundations of the
lavabo
A lavabo is a device used to provide water for the washing of hands. It consists normally of a ewer or container of some kind to pour water, and a bowl to catch the water as it falls off the hands. In ecclesiastical usage it refers to all of: the b ...
, occupying the usual position near the door of the refectory.
Gallery
File:Dunbrody Abbey, view from South-east.jpg, View from South-east
File:Nave, south aisle and base of bell tower.jpg, Nave, south aisle and base of bell tower
File:Dunbrody Abbey, north arcade.jpg, North arcade showing three of the four large buttresses that have preserved the wall
File:Buildings east of cloister garth.jpg, Buildings east of cloister garth
File:Dunbrody Abbey, underside of floor of bell tower.jpg, Underside of the floor of bell tower
File:Dunbrody Abbey Lavabo.jpg, Foundations of lavabo
See also
*
List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Wexford)
References
External links
Dunbrody Abbey(Official Site)
{{Coord, 52.2835, N, 6.96, W, source:dewiki_region:IE-WX_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title
13th-century churches in Ireland
Towers completed in the 15th century
Cistercian monasteries in the Republic of Ireland
Buildings and structures in County Wexford
Tourist attractions in County Wexford
Religion in County Wexford
Ruins in the Republic of Ireland
Christian monasteries established in the 13th century
National Monuments in County Wexford