The ruins of the abbey, accessible through land used for grazing cattle, are located in the grounds of Newhall House and Estate and include substantial remains of the abbey church together with a crypt. A narrow stone stairway leads between the altar and the east window to a ledge atop the remains of the south wall of the church, where an overview of the grounds may be seen with care.
Saint John's Holy Well
Today, there is an outside mass each year in June held by the local parish.[3]
Access
The abbey and graveyard is privately owned,[4][5] part of Newhall Estate, owned by the Commane family,[6][7] and as protected sites under national monument legislation, guardianship is vested in the Office of Public Works.[6][5] As it is private land, access is available with the owner's permission.[7][4] Killone Abbey is linked to Clare Abbey by the Pilgrim's Path, a footpath through Ballybeg forrest.[8]
Gallery
Killone Abbey 1890 Lawrence Collection National Library of Ireland
Glichrist, R., Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women, (London, 1994)
Ó Dálaigh, B., ‘Mistress, Mother and Abbess: Renalda Ní Bhriain c.1447-1510’ in North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 32, (1990) pp 50-63.
O’Keeffe, T. An Anglo-Norman Monastery: Bridgetown Priory and the Architecture of the Augustinian Canons Regular in Ireland, (Cork, 1999)
Westropp, T.J., ‘The Augustinian Houses of the County Clare: Clare, Killone and Inchicronan’ in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, (1900) pp 118-135.
