Baltinglass Abbey
Mainistir Bhealach Conglais | |
 View of Baltinglass Abbey looking across the Slaney | |
  Location within Ireland | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Vallis Salutis |
| Order | Cistercians |
| Established | 1148 |
| Disestablished | 1536 |
| Mother house | Mellifont Abbey |
| Diocese | Kildare and Leighlin |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Diarmait Mac Murchada |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Ruined |
| Style | Romanesque, Gothic |
| Groundbreaking | 1148 |
| Site | |
| Location | Church Lane, Baltinglass, County Wicklow, Ireland |
| Coordinates | 52°56′38″N 6°42′35″W / 52.943886°N 6.709747°W |
| Public access | yes |
| Official name | Baltinglass Abbey |
| Reference no. | 230 |
Baltinglass Abbey (Irish: Mainistir Bhealach Conglais)[1] is a ruined medieval Cistercian abbey in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, Ireland. Founded by Diarmait Mac Murchada in 1148, the abbey was suppressed in 1536. It is today a National Monument.[2]
History
[edit]
Founded in 1148 by Diarmait Mac Murchada, the King of Leinster, Baltinglass Abbey sits beside the River Slaney in a valley of the Wicklow Mountains.[3] The original name Belach Conglais means "pass of Cú Glas," referring to a mythological hero that was killed by wild boars.[4] The abbey is roughly contemporary with Ferns Abbey, St Saviour's Priory, and possibly also Killeshin Church. [5]
Baltinglass Abbey was established as a daughter house of Mellifont Abbey, a Cistercian abbey near Drogheda.[6] Diarmait gave it the Latin name Vallis Salutis, meaning "Valley of Salvation", and granted it eight parcels of land in the region as an endowment.
Grangecon, a nearby village, was originally an out-farm of the monks. They operated a corn-mill in the area that the village now occupies.[7]
The first stage of the building was completed by 1170, it had become the mother house of Jerpoint Abbey in about 1160,[8] and in 1228 it is recorded that there were 36 monks and 50 lay brothers living at Baltinglass.[9]
The Abbey was occupied for nearly 400 years until it was shut down by the 1536 Dissolution of the Monasteries and granted to Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne. A Church of Ireland church was built within the abbey itself in 1815, but it closed in 1883.[10][11]
Architecture
[edit]
The stonework at the abbey shows carved humans and animals and is a particular Cistercian form of Romanesque architecture.[12] The decoration on the capitals is similar to that at its daughter house Jerpoint.[13][14][15] [16]
The surviving church (56 m in length) and some of the cloister date from the 12th century, consisting of the nave with aisles, chancel, square presbytery with three-light window and a pair of transepts from which small chapels project. The south aisle of the church is joined to the choir by a twelfth-century doorway. Part of the original cloister, to the south of the church, has been rebuilt. The church also has 13th and 15th-century additions. The east windows and tower were built in the nineteenth century.
A glazed tile potentially depicting Saint George and the Dragon was unearthed at the abbey in 1941. At that point, it was the only tile ever found in Ireland with a human figure painted on it.[17]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Mainistir Bhealach Conglais / Baltinglass Abbey Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^ "National Monuments of County Wicklow in State Care" (PDF). heritageireland.ie. National Monument Service. p. 1. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
- ^ O'Keefe 1997, p. 53.
- ^ "Bealach Conglais - How Baltinglass got its name". County Wicklow Heritage. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^ O'Keefe 1997, p. 71.
- ^ Gwynn & Hadcock 1970, p. 127.
- ^ "The Irish village at a crossroads". The Irish Times. 5 April 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ Vál, Séamus de (2008). "A Glance at Five Cistercian Abbeys of the South-East". The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society (29): 54–76. JSTOR 44554278. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ "Cistercian Abbeys: Baltinglass". The Digital Humanities Institute. University of Sheffield. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ Past, Ed Hannon-Visions of the (9 September 2012). "Baltinglass Abbey, Wicklow, Ireland".
- ^ "Baltinglass Cistercian Abbey - Monastic Ireland".
- ^ O'Keefe 1997, p. 57.
- ^ "Baltinglass Abbey - Wicklow County Tourism".
- ^ CHI. "Baltinglass Abbey, Co. Wicklow".
- ^ "Baltinglass Abbey, Wicklow".
- ^ "Baltinglass Cistercian Abbey".
- ^ Parker 1941, p. 148.
Sources
[edit]- Gwynn, Aubrey; Hadcock, R. Neville (1970). Medieval Religious Houses in Ireland. London: Longman. pp. 127–128. ISBN 0-582-11229-X.
- O'Keefe, Tadhg (1997). "Diarmait Mac Murchada and Romanesque Leinster: Four Twelfth-Century Churches in Context". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 127: 52–79. JSTOR 25549827 – via JSTOR.
- Parker, William S. (31 December 1941). "A Decorated Tile from Baltinglass Abbey". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 11 (4): 148. JSTOR 25510314 – via JSTOR.