Columcille's Durrow
by John Willmott of Celtic Ways
A few days before I visited Co. Sligo and Columcille's Drumcliff I attempted a visit to the site of Columcille's Durrow monastic site, mainly because it has one of the finest high crosses in Ireland.
Columcille's Durrow is not at Durrow in Co. Laois. Its nowhere near as it is in Offaly, 6.5 km from Tullamore off of the Tullamore to Kilbeggan road. The Durrow monastic site was founded by Columcille about 10 years after Derry. Surprisingly, there is no record of Columcille re-visiting this site during his return visits to Ireland after his exile in Scotland.
Unfortunately, on my visit to the Durrow site I was greeted by construction workers who informed me that the high cross and other remains have been moved and locked up within the church on the site, and that I was not allowed inside under any circumstances!!
The church dates from the late eighteenth century, but was probably re-built from an earlier medieval church on the site of the original monastic site church. This may have been on the site of a pre-Christian sacred site too, especially the cemetery.
Many Celtic Christian sites were built on pre-Christian sites but not to smother the pre-Christian faith. There was, and maybe still is, an Irish superstition to not be the first buried in a cemetery because the devil always takes the first buried corpse. Therefore, Christian burial sites were often placed at pre-Christian burial sites and Christian churches would be placed by them.
Now, the church is being renovated and converted into a Duchas managed visitor's centre to be opened August 2005. The workers told me to come back then.
In late 2003 the Irish Government purchased 76 acres of land and property that included and surrounded where the monastic site was. On land none of the old monastic site is identifiable except for a wonderful ancient Holy Well, that can still be visited. Apparently, aerial photos indicate a large enclosure and provides clues about this being an area of extreme archeological importance. This State purchase has brought about a conclusion to a long-standing legal debate on the ownership of the Church, graveyard and land that once hosted the monastic site. When the visitor's centre becomes open for the public in August 2005 archaeological research will also take place on the site.
"Rescued" from the site, largely from the graveyard of the church, and locked up in the church are the fine 9th century high cross, five Early Christian grave slabs, remains of a cross shaft and a cross base.
I did get access to the nearby Holy Well. It is really worth a visit here, just for this well alone. This is very different to other Holy Wells you may have visited as this looks more ancient. Its within a wooded marshy area and usually takes a little paddling to get to. The well is on what is called St. Columcille's Island". I do suspect that this well dates well before the monastic site and has not been altered in design since. Some of its cover stones may well be iron or even bronze age. For myself, there was a "feel" here that is similar to what I feel at some iron age circle sites.
Durrow monastic site was regarded as a high place of learning and knowledge. It became quite famous during a debate over the date of Easter.
Words once sent to the Abbot of Durrow
translates as ...
O'Cormack beautiful is thy Church
With its books and learning,
A devout city with 100 Crosses.
This site is probably much more famous for being the site of scribing "The Book Of Durrow", which is now on display for the public at Trinity College, Dublin, beside the world famous "Book Of Kells". First fascination is that this book was made waterproof so it could be soaked and placed over sick animals who would then be prayed for. When the Durrow monastery was finally dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII, the book passed into different hands until Henry Jones the Protestant Bishop of Meath, presented it to Trinity College in 1661. It was kept in a cupboard until the 19th Century when it became displayed to the public.
Another property surviving very well on this site is the delightful Durrow Abbey House which looks totally medieval and Elizabethan but was actually re-built in the 1920s. I could not get close, though, due to being chased by appropriate doberman dogs keeping watch.
The walk from the main road to the site is extremely pleasant and invigorating. Walking along it you feel you are approaching something special. Many people use this wide path for the purpose of a healthy walk, especially with their dogs.
The Irish forestry commission also claim there are also 5 km of forestry walks originating from the site, but I did not see these signed. Perhaps they will be re-featured when the site re-opens in August.
Durrow in Irish is Dair Magh or Dermaig meaning a plain of oaks. Oak groves were often sites of pagan worship, often on sites where stones had been removed. An Abbot who wrote Columcille's biography claims that Durrow's monastic site, particularly the Abbey, was sited on a previous important pagan site.
Today's trees I could see were a mix of Scots pine, Norway spruce, birch and some rowan. Around the water close to the Holy Well are various species of long grasses.
I heard what sounded like pheasants and woodcocks and one of the walkers I passed claimed to have seen a mink.
Columcille's foundation of Durrow's monastic site seems to have followed the sequence of his other foundations. First, Durrow was on land owned by royalty family connections to Niall of the Nine Hostages, but it seems unclear who were the actual land owners. I have read of the Southern O'Neills and the Fox clan. This land was donated to Columcille, as original O'Neill land, for him to expand his work.
Second, this was a site of significant pre-Christian importance. Columcille did have sympathy for and faith in druidicial belief, practice and worship which he merged into his Christian faith. It was his druidicial understanding that enabled him to easily merge pre-Christian spiritual followers and druids into his Christian teaching and faith. Columcille's "takeover" of pagan sites was an expansion of what was there rather than replacement. He married Celtic religions with Christianity, hence Celtic Christianity. Some say that Columcille was first a druid in his life and then a Christian monk, hence his leaning more towards his father's more druidicial O'Donnell clan than his mother's royal O'Neill clan.
Durrow, like all leading monastic sites, was often under attack. It was a Norman Hugh de Lacy, around 1170, who succeeded in overcoming Durrow, demolished some of the monastic site and built a castle. This too was attacked, often by the Fox clan and maybe the O'Neills. By the 1600s this castle was destroyed. However, during this time some of the monastic site survived, certainly the Abbey did, and so did the various re-creations of the existing church on the site.
The church's graveyard, was closed in 1913. Both Catholics and Protestants were permitted to be buried there, and its closing caused an enormous amount of controversy. This closure prompted the attention of the famous Irish nationalist historian, Mrs. Stopford Green. This is her description of the grounds in 1914 .....
"...we passed into a wilderness of nettles, set around with lofty trees. In the centre of the wilderness was the bare desolate Church built apparently about 1710. It showed every sign of neglect. The round-headed windows were closed outside with large wooden shutters....The nettles grow thick to the walls of the church, and thick to the fence on every side....All worship has ceased on the site of Durrow Monastery. But the Catholic Irish had still the right - nearly 1400 years old - to bury in their ancient graveyard; their dead could still pass through the defenses of the Tolers. A priest's grave lies close to the west door. Tombstones, sunken, fallen, thick with ivy, press among the nettles. Fragments of the oldest form of inscribed cross slabs were there...it will be advisable and very necessary for the Celts who revere St. Columcille to watch with care his sacred memorials. No place in Ireland is better worth religious keeping than the site of Durrow." (from Durrow in History )
Today, though the visual appearance of Durrow as a monastic site is long gone, there is a charm and Holy Spell that still greets any visitor around this hallowed site.
A few days before I visited Co. Sligo and Columcille's Drumcliff I attempted a visit to the site of Columcille's Durrow monastic site, mainly because it has one of the finest high crosses in Ireland.
Columcille's Durrow is not at Durrow in Co. Laois. Its nowhere near as it is in Offaly, 6.5 km from Tullamore off of the Tullamore to Kilbeggan road. The Durrow monastic site was founded by Columcille about 10 years after Derry. Surprisingly, there is no record of Columcille re-visiting this site during his return visits to Ireland after his exile in Scotland.
Unfortunately, on my visit to the Durrow site I was greeted by construction workers who informed me that the high cross and other remains have been moved and locked up within the church on the site, and that I was not allowed inside under any circumstances!!
The church dates from the late eighteenth century, but was probably re-built from an earlier medieval church on the site of the original monastic site church. This may have been on the site of a pre-Christian sacred site too, especially the cemetery.
Many Celtic Christian sites were built on pre-Christian sites but not to smother the pre-Christian faith. There was, and maybe still is, an Irish superstition to not be the first buried in a cemetery because the devil always takes the first buried corpse. Therefore, Christian burial sites were often placed at pre-Christian burial sites and Christian churches would be placed by them.
Now, the church is being renovated and converted into a Duchas managed visitor's centre to be opened August 2005. The workers told me to come back then.
In late 2003 the Irish Government purchased 76 acres of land and property that included and surrounded where the monastic site was. On land none of the old monastic site is identifiable except for a wonderful ancient Holy Well, that can still be visited. Apparently, aerial photos indicate a large enclosure and provides clues about this being an area of extreme archeological importance. This State purchase has brought about a conclusion to a long-standing legal debate on the ownership of the Church, graveyard and land that once hosted the monastic site. When the visitor's centre becomes open for the public in August 2005 archaeological research will also take place on the site.
"Rescued" from the site, largely from the graveyard of the church, and locked up in the church are the fine 9th century high cross, five Early Christian grave slabs, remains of a cross shaft and a cross base.
I did get access to the nearby Holy Well. It is really worth a visit here, just for this well alone. This is very different to other Holy Wells you may have visited as this looks more ancient. Its within a wooded marshy area and usually takes a little paddling to get to. The well is on what is called St. Columcille's Island". I do suspect that this well dates well before the monastic site and has not been altered in design since. Some of its cover stones may well be iron or even bronze age. For myself, there was a "feel" here that is similar to what I feel at some iron age circle sites.
Durrow monastic site was regarded as a high place of learning and knowledge. It became quite famous during a debate over the date of Easter.
Words once sent to the Abbot of Durrow
translates as ...
O'Cormack beautiful is thy Church
With its books and learning,
A devout city with 100 Crosses.
This site is probably much more famous for being the site of scribing "The Book Of Durrow", which is now on display for the public at Trinity College, Dublin, beside the world famous "Book Of Kells". First fascination is that this book was made waterproof so it could be soaked and placed over sick animals who would then be prayed for. When the Durrow monastery was finally dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII, the book passed into different hands until Henry Jones the Protestant Bishop of Meath, presented it to Trinity College in 1661. It was kept in a cupboard until the 19th Century when it became displayed to the public.
Another property surviving very well on this site is the delightful Durrow Abbey House which looks totally medieval and Elizabethan but was actually re-built in the 1920s. I could not get close, though, due to being chased by appropriate doberman dogs keeping watch.
The walk from the main road to the site is extremely pleasant and invigorating. Walking along it you feel you are approaching something special. Many people use this wide path for the purpose of a healthy walk, especially with their dogs.
The Irish forestry commission also claim there are also 5 km of forestry walks originating from the site, but I did not see these signed. Perhaps they will be re-featured when the site re-opens in August.
Durrow in Irish is Dair Magh or Dermaig meaning a plain of oaks. Oak groves were often sites of pagan worship, often on sites where stones had been removed. An Abbot who wrote Columcille's biography claims that Durrow's monastic site, particularly the Abbey, was sited on a previous important pagan site.
Today's trees I could see were a mix of Scots pine, Norway spruce, birch and some rowan. Around the water close to the Holy Well are various species of long grasses.
I heard what sounded like pheasants and woodcocks and one of the walkers I passed claimed to have seen a mink.
Columcille's foundation of Durrow's monastic site seems to have followed the sequence of his other foundations. First, Durrow was on land owned by royalty family connections to Niall of the Nine Hostages, but it seems unclear who were the actual land owners. I have read of the Southern O'Neills and the Fox clan. This land was donated to Columcille, as original O'Neill land, for him to expand his work.
Second, this was a site of significant pre-Christian importance. Columcille did have sympathy for and faith in druidicial belief, practice and worship which he merged into his Christian faith. It was his druidicial understanding that enabled him to easily merge pre-Christian spiritual followers and druids into his Christian teaching and faith. Columcille's "takeover" of pagan sites was an expansion of what was there rather than replacement. He married Celtic religions with Christianity, hence Celtic Christianity. Some say that Columcille was first a druid in his life and then a Christian monk, hence his leaning more towards his father's more druidicial O'Donnell clan than his mother's royal O'Neill clan.
Durrow, like all leading monastic sites, was often under attack. It was a Norman Hugh de Lacy, around 1170, who succeeded in overcoming Durrow, demolished some of the monastic site and built a castle. This too was attacked, often by the Fox clan and maybe the O'Neills. By the 1600s this castle was destroyed. However, during this time some of the monastic site survived, certainly the Abbey did, and so did the various re-creations of the existing church on the site.
The church's graveyard, was closed in 1913. Both Catholics and Protestants were permitted to be buried there, and its closing caused an enormous amount of controversy. This closure prompted the attention of the famous Irish nationalist historian, Mrs. Stopford Green. This is her description of the grounds in 1914 .....
"...we passed into a wilderness of nettles, set around with lofty trees. In the centre of the wilderness was the bare desolate Church built apparently about 1710. It showed every sign of neglect. The round-headed windows were closed outside with large wooden shutters....The nettles grow thick to the walls of the church, and thick to the fence on every side....All worship has ceased on the site of Durrow Monastery. But the Catholic Irish had still the right - nearly 1400 years old - to bury in their ancient graveyard; their dead could still pass through the defenses of the Tolers. A priest's grave lies close to the west door. Tombstones, sunken, fallen, thick with ivy, press among the nettles. Fragments of the oldest form of inscribed cross slabs were there...it will be advisable and very necessary for the Celts who revere St. Columcille to watch with care his sacred memorials. No place in Ireland is better worth religious keeping than the site of Durrow." (from Durrow in History )
Today, though the visual appearance of Durrow as a monastic site is long gone, there is a charm and Holy Spell that still greets any visitor around this hallowed site.
4 Comments:
I was fortunate enough to see this amazing High Cross in 2004 before it was placed in the adjacent building. We returned in August 2005 and there was no sign of a visitors centre. The building was still being restored and those working on it were not confident of it being completed by 2006. I look forwards to being able to see the cross once more when the visitors centre is opened. Meanwhile there is a photo that I took of the cross on my website wildhallingbury.co.uk and go to the 2004 entries and follow the link to August.
Pity its not yet viewable to the public yet. When I visited the workers were quite aggressive in their protection of any view of the cross, and they did not seem to be on any deadline to complete the work.
A visit to the nearby Columba's Well is equally worth a visit to the site, though.
Sep 2006: Still under Restoration. We found the builders quite approachable, but the cross is encased in a large wooden box, thus preventing any real look at it. The manor house will apparently be the next step after the church conversion to duchas. Again, we loved the well, and I too felt that the site resmebled a possible ring fort of ancient origin. Maybe the well was originally intended to be a souterrain?!! We transcribed the inscription above the well, and had fun identifying possible trees referenced in the inscription - 'nut', 'sloe' & 'apple'. I haven't got the inscription with me - my father took it back to Oz. Still worth a visit.
They are certainly taking their time, I measure this by the time it took me to do heritage restoration on Iona. I assume the manor house must be including the heritage centre. When I visited I was chased by two dobermans keeping guard there.
Most important was your interesting info about the inscription above the well. I'm now racing to zoom in on my photos of there, but I assume it really needs a rubbing taken to make them clear, am I right?
Post a Comment
<< Home