The story of Devenish Island
Devenish — Daimhinis, 'ox island' — was founded in the 6th century by St Molaise, and grew into the most important of the many monasteries scattered across Lough Erne. Known as 'Devenish of the Assemblies', it was a gathering place for churchmen and chieftains. Like most early Irish monasteries it was raided by Vikings, who burned it in 837, and it was burned again in 1157.
The monastery flourished through the Middle Ages. Its oldest standing buildings, the round tower and St Molaise's House, both date from the 12th century and carry accomplished Romanesque carving. The round tower, close to 100 feet tall, survives almost intact, its conical cap ringed by a cornice of sculptured heads — one of the finest examples of its kind in Ireland.
More buildings followed. Teampull Mór, the lower church, was begun in the early 13th century and extended around 1300, gaining a residential wing and the Maguire Chapel with its 17th-century heraldic slabs. On the hilltop, St Mary's Augustinian Priory was built in the mid-15th and early 16th centuries with a church, tower and small cloister, and an intricately carved high cross stands in its graveyard.
Today the ruins are a state-care monument looked after by the Department for Communities, open free to anyone willing to make the short crossing. Little else has changed the island, which is why a visit still feels close to the monastery the monks knew.