Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Devenish - St. Molaise's House Oratory
 

County

Fermanagh

Coordinates

N 54° 22' 14.7"   W 007° 39' 20.52"

Nearest town

Enniskillen

Grid Ref.

H 22372 46955

Map No.

17

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

53

Date of visit

Tuesday 19 June 2018

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The Devenish Island monastery as it appears when you arrive on the island.


We had this settlement on our visit list for years, but never got to actually go to it. When eventually the time was right, we were welcomed to the island by one of the heaviest rains ever seen, so our visit was totally ruined and all the photos are... wet!
My camera was literally flooded by the heavy rain and it took a whole day to recover to full operation.

Devenish Island is the seat of one of the finest monastic settlements in Northern Ireland. St. Molaise established the monastery in the 6th century, along one of the pilgrim routes to Croagh Patrick, in Co. Mayo. The settlement on Devenish Island became a centre of scholarship and later was chosen as the site of the parish church. The settlement was raided by the Vikings in 837, and burned in 1157.
The name Devenish comes from the Irish Daimhinis, meaning "Ox Island".

The remains of a small building are all that remains of an oratory built in the 12th century, and it's the oldest surviving building on Devenish Island.
Unfortunately not much of this important building remains, but it was built with great care, with lots of attention to the details. Every stone of the building was carefully carved and shaped to fit the next ones, and most of them had elegant interlaced motifs.
This church became the focus during the pilgrimages, when people would visit the island on St. Molaise's feast day on September 12th.
Despite its beauty and importance, in the late 19th century the church was used as a quarry for stones to be used elesewhere.

The building is aligned to east-northeast (80°).


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 24757100

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter