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Corcomroe Abbey - plaque, near Bealaclugga, Co.Clare

Some interesting information about the abbey, though the dates are a little suspect. The general opinion seems to be that the monks came here around 1194/95, although building of the present abbey did not star until a decade or so later. The abbey had been dissolved in or before 1554, as it had been granted in that year to Murrough O'Brien, the first Earl of Thomond, a descendant of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland. It would seem that the abbey was affiliated to Furnace Abbey in the north of England between 1228 & 1231, as a result of the "conspiracy of Mellifont", some years before the quoted date of 1249. There is a record that in 1231 the monks of Corcomroe Abbey refused to receive visitors sent from Furnace Abbey.

The abbey's Latin name means St. Mary of the Fertile Rock, and reflects the fertile nature of the Burren soil, which was unusual for the west of Ireland.