Durrow Abbey 2.95

Durrow Abbey is a historic site in Durrow, County Offaly in Ireland. It is located off the N52 some 5 miles from Tullamore. Largely undisturbed, the site is an early medieval monastic complex of ecclesiastical and secular monuments, visible and sub-surface.The extant monuments at the site include a large ecclesiastical enclosure, five Early Christian grave slabs, a fine mid-ninth century high cross, a fragment of a cross shaft, a complete cross-head (housed in the National Museum of Ireland) and cross base, a holy well and other extensive archaeological features. Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath built a motte for the Abbey in 1180, and he was killed at the Abbey in 1186 by an Irishman.Early historyThe original monastery at Durrow was founded by St Columba in 553 o 556, who also founded 26 other monasteries by the age of 25, including the Abbey of Kells. He ran the Abbey until 563, when he moved to Scotland, appointing a monk, Cormac Ua Liathain, to take his place. Cormac found it impossible to retain the office of prior because of the rivalries between the northern and the southern clans, especially on the borderland, and so left the monastery, leaving in charge Columba's first cousin, Laisrén, who was acceptable to both sides. Durrow, during Columba's life and for centuries after his death, was a well known center of education. The Venerable Bede called it Monasterium nobile in Hiberniâ, and, at a later period, Armagh and Durrow were called the "Universities of the West". Durrow, like Clonard, Derry, and most other monasteries in the area, was frequently ravaged by the Vikings, but was not completely destroyed until the Norman invasion.