Drumcliff Church and Round Tower: A Columban Monastic Site in Ireland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Ireland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Irish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page10 sections
History
Drumcliff Church and Round Tower in Ireland preserves the site of a monastery founded by Saint Colmcille, also known as Columba, in 574 or 575 AD. The foundation stood in Cairbre Drom Cliabh, at the foot of Benbulben, and belonged to territory ruled by the Cinel Cairbre, a dynasty descended from Cairbre Mac Neill. The land was probably granted by the northern Uí Néill High King Aed Ainmire, who was related to Colmcille.
The Columban foundation
The monastery occupied the south bank of the Codhnach, now called the Drumcliff River, which runs from Glencar Lake to Drumcliff Bay. It was established near the scene of the Battle of the Book, fought about 560, in which Colmcille took part. Lands attached to the religious foundation, known as termonn lands, lay several miles to the west at Ardtermon, a name meaning “High Sanctuary.”
Drumcliff became an early member of the Columban paruchia, a network of monasteries claiming institutional and spiritual continuity with Colmcille and headquartered at Iona. The Cenél Conaill dynasty, Colmcille’s family group, served as the network’s principal patron and ally from its foundation until the eighth century. During that century the Columban federation in Ireland flourished under Clann Cholmáin, the Southern Uí Néill branch, whose influence extended through both religious institutions and political alliances.
In the ninth century, the Patrician paruchia, the network of ecclesiastical institutions associated with Saint Patrick and centered on Armagh, overtook Columban influence. The rule of the Cenél nEogain overking Áed Oirdnide damaged Columban interests, while disputes over the correct date for Easter further weakened the federation. Viking attacks also contributed to the transfer of the Columban headquarters from Iona to Kells in 804.
Abbots, administrators, and medieval change
Saint Thorian, also called Mothorian, became Drumcliff’s first abbot or comharba, the recognized successor and head of a Columban foundation. Saint Torannon was regarded as the patron of the surrounding district and was believed to consider the summit of Benbulben the closest place to heaven in Ireland. Drumcliff also maintained close connections with the Céile Dé, an Irish Christian reform movement whose members emphasized ascetic religious observance, and the monastery may have housed a community of them.
The foundation’s lay administration was associated with hereditary erenaghs, officials responsible for managing ecclesiastical lands and other temporal affairs. Among these families were the O Beollains, also known as Bolands, and the O Coineils. The annals record a succession of abbots and administrators connected with Drumcliff. Mothorianus became the first abbot in 574 or 575; Dunadhach, son of Raghallach and lord of Cinel Cairbre, was buried there in 871; and the abbots Maolpatrick and Maenghal Mac Becan died in 921 and 930. The erenaghs Flann ua Becan and Angus O Hennesy died in 950 and 1029, with Angus burned to death. Morrough O Beollain died in 1053.
The O Beollain family continued to hold the office of comharba in later centuries. Maelmoedoc O Beollain, described as the exceptionally wealthy, respected, charitable, and generous successor of Colmcille at Drumcliff, died in 1252. Maelfinnan O Beollain died in 1254, while later O Beollain successors died in 1362 and 1503. Violence also affected the monastery. In 1315, the daughter of Manus O Conor, the wife of O Donnell, attacked Drumcliff’s churches and plundered several clerics and comharbas. In 1416, robbers burned Muirgius O Coineoil, the Drumcliff comharba, in his own house.
A church dedicated to Saint Muadhnat, an early Irish female saint associated with the district, stood east of the monastery. It has been placed in either Ballynagalliagh or Keelty. Around 1223, the church lands at Ballynagalliagh became attached to the Arroasian Augustinian convent at Kilcreevanty near Tuam. The order was associated with service to travelers.
Decline and later history
Drumcliff declined during the later Middle Ages as continental abbeys and other religious institutions gained influence. From the thirteenth century, Sligo Abbey became the preferred burial place of the local Gaelic dynasty of O Conchobar Sligigh. The last monks at Drumcliff are recorded in 1503, although the date when the monastery finally ceased to function is unknown. The monastery is also described as having been demolished in the seventeenth century.
In 1537, Henry introduced legislation in the Irish Parliament intended to dissolve Ireland’s religious houses. The measure could not be applied at Drumcliff until the Tudor conquest had reached Connacht in the final decade of the sixteenth century. Afterward, the monastery’s lands were transferred to the Church of Ireland Diocese of Elphin. A seventeenth-century inquisition described a vaulted stone house called Teach O Connell, a church, and a house for the parson at the western end of the church. In 1837, Samuel Lewis reported that some monastic remains could still be seen.
Excavations in 1982, 1983, and 1984 revealed evidence for metalworking and agriculture at Drumcliff. Remote-sensing surveys later identified further buried features, including mill-races. The site now functions as a Church of Ireland parish church and graveyard as well as a religious and archaeological site. It is also the burial place of William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and playwright, linking Drumcliff’s long religious history with the modern literary history of Ireland.
Remains
The surviving site combines a round tower, several monumental stone crosses, an early Christian cross slab, the parish church, and the graveyard. The round tower stands at the western end of the site, while the crosses and church form part of the same surviving ecclesiastical landscape. Together with buried features identified by survey and the finds recovered through excavation, these remains preserve evidence for the monastery’s religious, domestic, agricultural, and craft activities.
Standing structures and stone crosses
Round tower
The round tower has a diameter of just under 5 metres and rises approximately 9 metres above the present ground level. Its doorway faces east-southeast and is positioned 1.75 metres above ground level. The tower’s surviving masonry represents one of the principal standing elements of the former monastery. Lightning reportedly struck it in 1396.
High crosses
Four high crosses are known from Drumcliff. A high cross is a freestanding monumental stone cross, often carved with biblical scenes and interlace. Near the entrance, a sandstone cross shaft retains a mortise for a cross-piece that is no longer present. During repairs in 1999, sections of another cross bearing decorative patterns were found within the interior wall of the church.
Three sections of a further cross are held by the National Museum. Its western face shows the Mocking of Christ and the Resurrection, while its eastern face depicts Daniel in the lions’ den and the Sacrifice of Isaac. The principal high cross is approximately 3 metres high, with arms spanning 1.1 metres. Its shaft measures 47 centimetres across and 31 centimetres thick. It is carved in the Urnes style, a late Viking Age style defined by finely interlaced, ribbon-like animals, and has been tentatively dated to the ninth or tenth century on artistic grounds. It is the only surviving example of its kind in County Sligo.
Beaded moulding frames the principal cross’s scriptural panels, while mythical beasts in high relief decorate its sides. The western face presents scenes from the New Testament, and the eastern face presents scenes from the Old Testament. Several subjects remain open to interpretation. The western face includes three frontal figures, with the central figure holding a child diagonally across the body; a camel in high relief crossing the shaft; and a scene of the arrest or mocking of Jesus, where Jesus stands between two soldiers. Another panel has been interpreted either as the Return from Egypt or as Zachariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist. Below it is the Crucifixion, showing Jesus in a long robe, Stephaton offering vinegar, and Longinus raising his spear. Heads on the cross-arms may represent the thieves at the Crucifixion. Harbison interpreted the three-figure scene as the Presentation of John the Baptist in the Temple.
The eastern face begins with interlace forming four circles, which Stokes suggested might represent the base of the Tree of Life. It also shows Adam and Eve, with Eve eating the apple in the Garden of Eden; an animal in high relief, possibly a lion identified by its mane; David killing Goliath; and Daniel in the lions’ den. An upper panel has been interpreted variously as the Second Coming of Christ, the Last Judgment, or Maiestas Domini, an image of Christ in Majesty. Its decoration includes a top and ring, interlace, presumed animal heads, and spirals.
The southern side of the cross-arm shows Mary holding the infant Jesus before her. This is described as the only known representation of the Virgin Mary and Child on an Irish high cross. The cross also gives unusual prominence to the infancy cycle of John the Baptist, a narrative associated with the apocryphal Protoevangelion of James and with the Columban monastic tradition.
Church and graveyard
The parish church and graveyard occupy part of the former monastic site. An early Christian cross slab was found in the graveyard, and the graveyard includes the burial place of William Butler Yeats. The church also preserves sections of a decorated cross that were incorporated into its interior wall before their discovery during the 1999 repairs.
Excavated and buried evidence
Excavation produced bronze and iron waste, showing metalworking activity, together with pins, bronze needles, buckles, glass and paste beads, and iron knives. Bone and antler objects included material from combs. Animal bones, shellfish, seeds, grain, and a fragment of gold leaf add evidence for food use, agriculture, and craft activity at the monastery. Crannog ware, a type of medieval Irish pottery associated with activity from the thirteenth century onward, indicates continued use during the later medieval period.
Remote-sensing surveys identified multiple buried or subsurface features across the site, including the remains of mill-races. These features form part of the archaeological evidence for the monastery’s working landscape and complement the standing tower, crosses, church, and graveyard.
