placenames.ie
Civil parish

Abbey

An Mhainistir

The monastery’s wider precinct and altered grave slabs reveal changes beyond the familiar church ruin.

Watercolour and fine ink illustration of Surviving gatehouse walls at Corcomroe Abbey, County Clare, as photographed in June 2015.
Illustration, Surviving gatehouse walls at Corcomroe Abbey, County Clare, as photographed in June 2015
Recorded locationAbbey53.13223° N · 9.07588° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Approximate recorded location · Logainm.ie

The name

mainistirmonastery

These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.

An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.

Recorded forms

  • An Mhainistir · Irish · main form · non-validated name
  • Abbey · English · main form

Place & story

The precinct beyond the church

Corcomroe Abbey stood within a roughly rectangular enclosure measuring about 250 by 210 metres. The archaeological survey traces surviving stretches of mortared stone wall, with a gatehouse on the west side. Elsewhere, later field walls follow the older boundary. Narrow fields now divide much of the interior. These remains show that the monastic precinct extended considerably beyond the surviving church and its immediate burial space. [2]

Stones given another purpose

A grave slab reused above the doorway between the south transept and cloister retains part of a carved cross, although its upper section is missing. Another slab on the presbytery floor bears an inscription naming John O’Dally and Marey Flanagane in 1682. The survey considers this inscription to have been added over an earlier cross. The stones preserve separate acts of building, burial and commemoration within the same monastic site. [3] [4]

Geographic information

Place type
Civil parish
County
Clare
Barony
Burren
Coordinates
53.13223, -9.07588 (approximate)
Mapped area
21.88 km²
Logainm ID
411 ↗

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Abbey. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Corcomroe precinct enclosure, CL003-029001-, surveyed2015 · Gearóid Conroy and Mary Tunney, Archaeological Survey of Ireland
  3. Reused grave slab, CL003-029011-, including Carey2008 · Mary Tunney, Archaeological Survey of Ireland; O. Carey
  4. Inscribed grave slab, CL003-029012-, including Carey2008 · Mary Tunney, Archaeological Survey of Ireland; O. Carey
  5. Surviving gatehouse walls at Corcomroe Abbey, County Clare, as photographed in June 2015 illustration: based on a Remains of the gatehouse, Corcomroe Abbey by Jonathan Thacker. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.