Ireland/Irish > Black's guide to Killarney and the south of Ireland

JERPOINT ABBEY.
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Jerpoint Abbey, one mile from Thomastown Station on the
Waterford and Kilkenny Railway, and twelve miles south of
Kilkenny, is a very interesting ruin, situated on the river Nore.
“In wealth, honours, and architectural splendours,” writes
N. P. Willis, “ Jerpoint was exceeded hy no other monastic
institution in Ireland. The demesne lands extended over
1500 acres of fertile ground, and the buildings included the
abbey-church and tower, a refectory, dormitory, and offices,
that occupied an area of three acres. The whole of this
property, bequeathed for objects purely sacred, was granted
at the dissolution to Thomas Butler, tenth Earl of Ormonde,
at an annual rent of £49; 3:9.” The founder was Donald
M'Gilla Patrick, Prince of Ossory; his tomb is placed opposite
the high altar, ornamented with two recumbent figures. The
architecture combines the Anglo-Norman and the Gothic
styles; what remains is extremely beautiful, but wantonness
and neglect have well nigh completed the destruction of this
once extensive and beautiful structure.
The tourist who is desirous of exploring the varied beauties
of scenery with which the banks of the river Nore abound,
from Kilkenny to its junction with the Barrow, near New Ross,
will find Thomastown a good central station. The town
itself is poor, but situated in a very picturesque country, and
contains an inn where conveyances can be obtained.
Kells, also reached from Thomastown Station, from which
it is 7£ miles distant, is an ancient city, founded by a follower
of Earl Strongbow’s, called Geoffrey Eitz-Robert, his object
being to provide a garrison for the subjugation of the Tippe¬
rary Irish. Like most other of the invaders, he sought peace
to his conscience by founding a religious house, which gradually
became a place of greater importance until dissolved in the
reign of Henry VIII. The Prior was a spiritual lord in Parlia¬
ment. Portions of the ruins, comprising the remains of towers
and walls and the cloisters, still attract some attention to the
place. There is a town of Kells in the county of Meath, where
a monastery was founded by the famous St. Columbkille; also
a third place of the same name in the County Antrim.
last on record. The particulars of this silly tragedy were printed in a pamphlet
entitled, ‘ The bewitching of a Child in Ireland,’ and from thence copied by
Professor Sinclair, in his work entitled, ‘ Satan’s Invisible World Discovered,’
which is frequently referred to by Sir Walter Scott in his Letters on Demonology .”