Boyle Abbey

Notes:

"This Cistercian monastery was founded in the twelfth century by monks from Mellifont Abbey under the patronage of the local ruling family, the MacDermotts. It was one of the most powerful of the early Cistercian foundations in Ireland and among the foremost in Connacht. Cromwellian forces wreaked devastation when they occupied the abbey in 1659. It was further mutilated during the following centuries, when it was used to accommodate a military garrison. Despite all the violence it has suffered over the centuries, Boyle Abbey is well preserved and retains its ability to impress…” Read more about the history of Boyle Abbey on the OPW Heritage Ireland website (link above).

Sandstone from St. John’s Hole, located close to Boyle, was used for all classes of work at Boyle Abbey, including the carved mouldings. This hard, grey stone is Carboniferous in age and is situated in the Boyle Sandstone Formation. In George Wilkinson’s Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland, published in 1845, he stated: ‘On the north side of the river [River Boyle], at a place called St. John’s Hole, a good sandstone of a greyer colour is quarried; and chiefly from a very large and deep hole in the river, where the quarry was originally worked, is supposed to have been obtained the stone used in the construction of the abbey at Boyle. In the ruins of the abbey there is excellent work of every kind, from common plain dressed stone, to carved mouldings and ornaments; and its lofty arches display a skill in construction far superior to the masonry of the present day. The stone has resisted exposure to the weather well, some of the marks of the tool being still visible. It is supposed that the beds from which the stone was obtained were more easily worked than those now above the water, nor is the supposition improbable; and it is likely that by well-diverted efforts, the bed of the river was temporarily diverted in order to get at these stones which, from being constantly saturated, had not become so hard at that which was comparatively in a dry position. The stone in its present state is certainly very hard.’ (Wilkinson, 1845, p. 265, 266). Locally sourced limestone was also used for rubble walling.

In 2004 Carrig Conservation International Ltd. was appointed by the Office of Public Works to undertake conservation of Boyle Abbey’s church. Some new dressed stone was provided and damaged stone was repaired as required. The project was completed in 2011.