Ballinskelligs Augustinian Abbey

Ballinskelligs Abbey, also known as the Priory of the Arroasian Canons of the Order of St Augustine, sits on the edge of the Iveragh Peninsula of South Kerry. Off the coast lies the world famous Sceilg Mhichíl, a UNESCO World Heritage Property. Ballinskelligs Abbey/Priory was founded in 1210 by the Augustinian Canons from Rattoo, in North Kerry. The abbey was founded to house the Skellig monks due to hazardous condition on the Skellig islands. Added to that would have been the numerous Viking raids, the island becoming colder, and changes to the structure of the Irish church which led to the abandonment of the island in favour of the mainland, and Ballinskelligs.

Ballinskelligs priory is dedicated to St Michael, the legendary slayer of serpents, and in turn is connected to St Fíonán, the latter an early Irish saint. The priory was occupied and in use up to 1569 and abandoned in 1578 under the reformation by Elizabeth I. The site was leased to Gyles Clinsher in the same year, and less than a decade later leased out to John Blake. In 1756 Richard Harding of Bristol became the landowner, and in 1615 the Sigerson family inherited the priory. According to tradition, Christopher Sigerson was engaged to Richard Harding’s daughter and, on proceeding to her home in Bristol to be married, he met her funeral leaving the house. However, Richard treated Sigerson as if she had lived and married, and gave Sigerson the manor of Ballinskelligs, with the abbey and lands attached to it. Subsequently, it was bequeathed to a daughter of John Sigerson who married into Dromore Castle and in 1902 Harold Sigerson Mahony became the owner.

Owing to the priory coastal location, erosion has, over a number of centuries, demolished parts of the priory and graveyard. This has been rectified by a sea-wall now protecting the site. The priory shows architectural detail from the 13^th century to the 15^th century. The church, nave and chancel type, and other buildings are arranged around the central cloister. The nave, or central part of the church, connects to a rectangular building known as the Prior’s House. South west of the church is the refectory, a room where meals were eaten, and the area in-between is the cloister, formerly a covered walk.

The church consists of the nave and a portion of the chancel. The church was constructed using roughly coursed rubble set in a lime and gravel mortar with sandstone dressings. Some of the inner walls show signs of being plastered.

The nave contains numerous graves marked by architectural fragments. Three doorways lead off the nave at the south west giving access to the cloister area. There is a blocked central doorway with a segmented arch of pitched slabs, with the top of the window it blocks showing an ogee-headed window.

Little remains of the chancel except part of a pointed arched wall which is topped by a bellcote which caps the apex of this wall. Part of two windows can be seen in the north east wall. It has been suggested the chancel had collapsed by 1841.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014