St Mary's Abbey Dublin

📍 County Dublin, Ireland

3.3 ★★★ 18 reviews

About

St. Mary's Abbey was a former Cistercian abbey located near the junction of Abbey Street and Capel Street in Dublin, Ireland. Its territory stretched from the district known as Oxmanstown down along the River Liffey until it met the sea. It also owned large estates in other parts of Ireland. It was one of several liberties that existed in Dublin since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century, which gave it jurisdiction over its lands.

St Mary's Abbey was Dublin's most important medieval monastery. In its chapter house in 1534, 'Silken Thomas' Fitzgerald dramatically threw down the Sword of State and renounced his allegiance to Henry VIII, launching a rebellion that led to his execution. The vaulted chapter house, rediscovered in the 19th century, is the only substantial surviving fragment.