Things to Do in Tipperary

Athassel Priory, Tipperary: Ireland's Largest Medieval Priory

A vast Augustinian priory abandoned beside the Suir, once the centre of a town of its own, and free to explore.

Athassel Priory, near Golden in County Tipperary, is described by Wikipedia as the largest medieval priory in Ireland. It was an Augustinian house founded around 1200 under the patronage of William de Burgh, and its ruins now stand unroofed and mostly unvisited beside the River Suir. It is a National Monument, visitors report that entry is free, and you reach it on foot across a field.

A priory founded by the de Burghs

The priory was established by Augustinian canons regular in the late 12th century under the patronage of William de Burgh, founder of the Burke (de Burgh) line in Ireland. Wikipedia gives c. 1200 as the date work began, and records William’s death in 1205. His grandson Hubert de Burgh, later Bishop of Limerick, was prior here around 1221.

The de Burghs chose the site as a family burial place, and Wikipedia lists the burials of Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster, and Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, as well as William himself. Visitors still find modern graves among the older slabs.

The size of it

The site covers about four acres, and that is the reason for the “largest” claim. Wikipedia explains that the buildings were altered and renovated over roughly 300 years, and often reduced as the community shrank. Extensive remains of the monastic quarters lie to the south of the church, built mainly of limestone and rubble. In the main aisle you can still see the blocked rood screen above the central doorway, and the aisle itself was used as a burial ground in recent centuries.

One visitor account reports carved stonework that resembles the carving at Jerpoint Abbey in County Kilkenny, though the site is exposed to the weather and it is best to treat it as a ruin, not a conserved interior.

A town that vanished

A town grew around the priory. Wikipedia says it was large, and that it was destroyed in two raids, so that nothing of it remains. The priory was burnt in 1329 by Brian, King of Thomond, and again in 1581 by John Fitzgerald of Desmond. One visitor account puts the former settlement at nearly 2,000 people, but that figure is not established by the Wikipedia article, so treat it as a local estimate.

Dissolution and decay

Athassel was dissolved in 1537 during the Reformation. The lands went to Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, who neglected the buildings, and they fell into ruin. The Office of Public Works lists the site as a National Monument, under the name Athassel Abbey.

Getting there and what to expect

There is a stone bridge and a gate lodge on the approach, and the site is reached by a short walk across a field. Visitor accounts say that the site is free and unguided, that parking is limited to a small roadside area, and that cattle may be in the field, so take care on the road and with gates. The ground is uneven and some walls are in poor repair, so keep out of the structures and keep children and dogs close. Directions from Golden vary between sources, so use a map and the local signposting. Conditions can change, so check heritageireland.ie before you go.

A quiet counterpart to the Rock of Cashel

Athassel is only a short drive from the Rock of Cashel, and the two show different sides of medieval Tipperary: a hilltop cathedral complex on one hand, a lowland monastic enclosure with its own vanished town on the other. Here there is rarely a crowd, and the dimensions of the place can be read from the ground.

From Ardfinnan

Athassel Priory is about 25 km from Ardfinnan, roughly 30 minutes by road. Ardfinnan is itself a Norman castle on the Suir, and the castle looks best from the village bridge. Athassel also sits on the Suir, further upstream. For more to see across the county, read our roundup of the Castles of Tipperary.