Rosserk Friary - 25km 35min

The friary of Rosserk was founded around 1460 by a member of the Joyce family for a community of friars of the Third Order of St. Francis - married men and women who wished to lead a Franciscan life but, because of their married status, were unable to join the First Order (friars) or the Second Order (nuns). In 1590 Sir Richard Bingham, governor of Connacht, burned Rosserk.

The Church, which has an attractive bell tower and a fine four-light east window, stands at the south side of the cloister; on the opposite side is the refectory or dining hall. On the east side is a sacristy attached to the church, and the chapter house; above this is the dormitory. In the choir of the church is a beautiful double piscina, a recess containing a stone basin used to wash the sacred vessels used in the Mass. On one of the pillars of this piscina is a unique carving of a round tower which the stone mason must have seen in the ruins of a much older monastery. Above the round tower are carvings of angles.

Rosserk - from Ros Eirc (the Wood or Headland of Earc)


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