The story of Grey Abbey
Grey Abbey was founded in 1193 by Affreca, daughter of the King of the Isle of Man and wife of the Norman invader John de Courcy. Tradition says she made a vow during a storm at sea that if she reached land safely she would found a monastery, and Grey Abbey was the result. She brought in Cistercian monks from Holm Cultram in Cumbria to settle it.
The abbey was built in the new Gothic style arriving from England and France, and is counted among the earliest Gothic buildings in Ireland. Its west doorway, carved in tiers of pointed arches, remains one of the finest examples of early Gothic work in the country. The church was laid out as a cross, with a cloister, refectory and other monastic buildings ranged around it.
Monastic life ended at the dissolution of the monasteries; the abbey was suppressed and fell into ruin. In the early 1600s, during the Plantation, the lands passed to Sir Hugh Montgomery, and the nave of the old church was repaired and used as the local parish church until the late 18th century, when it was finally abandoned.
Today the ruins stand in parkland once attached to the Rosemount estate. The site is in the care of the Historic Environment Division of the Department of Communities, which maintains the church, the surrounding buildings and a reconstructed physic garden of medieval medicinal herbs.