Mullinabreena

Court Abbey

The ruins of Court Abbey stand in the townland of Lavagh, within the historic territory of Leyny and the parish of Achonry. Although commonly known as an abbey, Court was more properly a Franciscan Third Order friary, established during the fifteenth century under the patronage of the O’Haras, the principal Gaelic lords of Leyny.

The surviving church occupies rising ground and is dominated by its tall central tower, a distinctive landmark in the surrounding landscape. The ruins now stand within an active graveyard, continuing an association with burial at Court that has endured for centuries.

Figure 1. Court Abbey and graveyard, with the surviving central tower rising above the ruins.

Court formed part of the growth of Franciscan religious houses in the west of Ireland during the later medieval period. Its history was closely connected with the O’Haras and with the Gaelic society of Leyny in which the community developed. The standing ruins represent only part of the medieval foundation, while surviving archaeology and historical records point to activity extending beyond the church itself.

The site also preserves evidence that is less immediately visible. Medieval decoration survives within the church, while archaeological remains in the surrounding fields provide further evidence for the landscape in which the friary stood. Historical drawings and descriptions are particularly valuable in recording parts of the building that have since disappeared or deteriorated.

Taken together, the surviving ruins, archaeology, documentary sources, along with local traditions make Court Abbey one of the most significant medieval sites in south Sligo.

Foundation and the Franciscan Third Order

Court Friary was founded during the fifteenth century within the Gaelic lordship of Leyny, the territory traditionally ruled by the O’Hara family. The surviving documentary evidence places a Franciscan Third Order community at Court by the middle of the century, although its origins may have been somewhat earlier.

A papal document issued during the pontificate of Pope Nicholas V in 1454 provides the principal evidence for the early foundation. It records lands granted by John O’Hara, lord of the surrounding territory, for the use of the Franciscan Third Order community at Court and indicates that building work had already begun. Local historical accounts give an earlier foundation date of 1441, associated with Andrew Ocluman, but the evidence for this date is less certain. The papal record therefore provides the firmer basis for dating the establishment of the friary.

The same 1454 record preserves the earliest known form of the place-name, Ciurtwilleag. This is considerably earlier than the familiar forms Court and Court Abbey found in later records. Its precise meaning and origin are uncertain, and the spelling may represent a medieval rendering of an Irish place-name. By the later sixteenth century the shortened forms Curte and Court were in use, from which the modern name developed.

Court belonged to the Third Order Regular of St Francis, rather than the First Order of Franciscan friars. The Third Order developed a particularly strong presence in late medieval Ireland, especially in the west. Its religious houses were generally supported by local patrons, and their communities combined communal religious life with pastoral work among the surrounding population, which may also have included education.

Figure 2. The surviving outer wall of the original fifteenth-century church at Court Abbey, with the later central tower rising above. Photograph courtesy of the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland, reproduced with permission.

An unusual feature of the documentary evidence for Court is the reference to the “brothers and sisters” of the Third Order. Colmán Ó Clabaigh has suggested that this wording may indicate the presence of both male and female religious within the community. The interpretation remains uncertain, however, as other evidence indicates that Irish Franciscan Tertiary houses were generally composed principally of brothers and priests. Court may therefore represent an unusual arrangement, but the surviving evidence does not allow the composition of its community to be established with certainty.

The O’Haras were central to the establishment and development of the friary. Their grant of land reflects the close relationship between religious foundations and Gaelic lordship in fifteenth-century Ireland, with prominent families providing patronage and property to religious communities within their territories. The association between Court and the O’Haras was to endure for centuries, particularly through the family’s later use of the church as a place of burial.

Court also appears to have been connected with a smaller religious foundation at Kilcummin, approximately five kilometres to the west. Gwynn and Hadcock described Kilcummin as a small dependency of Court, although no standing remains of the foundation survive. Its connection with the friary provides further evidence that Court’s religious and landed interests extended beyond the immediate site at Lavagh.

Court Friary in the Sixteenth Century

By the sixteenth century, Court was an established religious house with buildings and lands extending beyond the surviving church. Documentary records from the period provide some of the clearest evidence for the extent of the friary during the final decades of the Franciscan community.

An Exchequer inquisition held at Sligo in 1587 recorded Court as a monastery of the Third Order of St Francis. Its possessions included two quarters of land, recorded as Carrow-ardower and Carrowen-tawny, which were then in the occupation of the priest Roger Ballagh O’Hara. O’Rorke later suggested that Carrow-ardower included Knocknashee and identified Carrowen-tawny with the neighbouring townland of Carrowntawny. These identifications provide a possible indication of the extent of the friary lands, although they should not be regarded as securely established boundaries.

Late sixteenth-century records also provide a rare description of the wider religious complex. Court was recorded as comprising a thatched church, cemetery, dormitory and two other thatched houses. The description is significant because little trace of these domestic buildings survives above ground today. The substantial stone church was therefore only one element of a larger settlement in which the religious community lived and worked.

Figure 3. The surviving ruins of Court Abbey, showing the central tower and the pointed arch between the nave and chancel. Photograph courtesy of the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland, reproduced with permission.

The closing decades of the century brought the suppression of Court as a religious house. Its property subsequently began to appear in grants made by the Crown, although legal suppression did not necessarily bring an immediate end to religious activity at the site. The transfer of the former friary and its lands was a gradual process that continued into the seventeenth century.

This is suggested by references to clergy at Court after the suppression. A general pardon issued during the reign of James I names Hugh O’Derige of Courteroriballagh, priest, together with Arte McManes of the same place, also a priest. The record does not establish whether they were surviving members of the Franciscan community or secular clergy, and their precise relationship with Court is therefore uncertain.

Much of the wider friary complex described in the sixteenth-century records has left little visible trace above ground. Its original extent and arrangement remain important questions in understanding the archaeology of Court.

Architecture and Development of the Friary

The surviving church at Court Abbey was constructed in more than one phase. The nave and chancel belong to the earliest phase, consistent with the mid-fifteenth-century date of the foundation, while the central tower and south transept were later additions, constructed no later than the sixteenth century. These additions substantially altered the original church and gave the building much of the form that survives today.

The original church consisted of a long rectangular nave and chancel, built of roughly coursed limestone set in lime mortar. O’Rorke later recorded the nave as approximately 100 feet long and 24 feet wide. The eastern end of the chancel has been lost, although a break in slope marks the approximate position of its former east wall. Part of this wall was still standing when the ruins were recorded by Francis Grose in the late eighteenth century.

The most prominent addition was the central tower, inserted between the nave and chancel and faced externally with limestone ashlar. O’Rorke estimated its height at approximately 90 feet. It rises from four substantial piers forming pointed arches opening east and west into the chancel and nave. At a higher level, a doorway on the western side appears to have provided access to a wooden gallery overlooking the nave, while a smaller opening to the east probably communicated with an attic above the chancel. The tower was originally crowned by battlements, which have disappeared, although water-spouts associated with the former wall-walk remain visible.

Figure 4. The broad pointed arch connecting the nave with the south transept at Court Abbey. The transept was a later addition to the original fifteenth-century church. Photograph courtesy of the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland, reproduced with permission.

The south transept, traditionally known as O’Brien’s Chapel, was another later addition. O’Rorke recorded it as approximately 36 feet long and 23 feet wide, while admitting that the origin of its traditional name was unknown. A broad pointed arch connects the transept with the nave. In its eastern wall are two large recesses which appear to have accommodated side altars. Each is accompanied by a piscina, a shallow stone basin with a drainage hole used for washing sacred vessels and disposing of water used during the celebration of Mass.

Between the two altar recesses is a small mural chamber entered through a round-headed doorway, now largely obstructed by a late eighteenth-century headstone. Its original function remains uncertain. Interpretations have included a secretarium, confessional and anchorite’s cell. The possibility of an anchorite’s cell is particularly interesting given that an anchoritic form of religious life was permitted within the Franciscan Third Order, but there is insufficient evidence to establish that this was the chamber’s purpose.

Eighteenth-century drawings and plans provide valuable evidence for architectural features that have subsequently disappeared. Records by Gabriel Beranger and Angelo Maria Bigari show Court before further deterioration and include features such as a spiral staircase formerly positioned between the tower and south transept. These antiquarian records, when considered alongside the surviving masonry, help reconstruct parts of the medieval building that can no longer be seen.

Court also shares architectural features with other late medieval Franciscan foundations in the west of Ireland, particularly Moyne in County Mayo and Ross Errilly in County Galway. These similarities place Court within a wider regional tradition of Franciscan architecture while the surviving building reflects the particular development of the friary at Lavagh over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The Dissolution and Later History

Following the suppression of the friary, Court and its lands passed through a series of Crown grants and changes of ownership. Although the Franciscan community ceased to function as it had during the medieval period, the former religious estate continued to appear in official records throughout the seventeenth century.

During the reign of James I, the former monastery was granted to Francis Edgeworth. O’Rorke records the grant as comprising the church, cemetery, a dormitory, two small cabins and two adjoining quarters of land, amounting to eighty acres. The lands were named Kearoweardmore and Kearowentawny, variant forms of names associated with the possessions of Court in earlier records.

The former estate also appears to have included property at Kilcummin. In the sixteenth year of James I, a grant to William Crowe of Dublin included Carrow-Killcomin and a stone house, described as part of the estate of the monastery of Court. This provides documentary support for the connection between Kilcummin and the friary recorded in later accounts.

Figure 5. Gabriel Beranger’s plan of Court Abbey, c.1779, showing the layout of the medieval church and details of its surviving windows. Beranger’s drawing provides an important record of architectural features that have since been lost. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

By 1692, the Earl of Cork was listed as tenant of “Court Abbey, 2 quarters.” O’Rorke, writing in the nineteenth century, recorded Lord Harlech as the owner in his own time. These references trace, at least in part, the passage of the former ecclesiastical property into secular ownership following the suppression.

The buildings themselves gradually fell into ruin, although precisely when the church ceased to be maintained is uncertain. By the eighteenth century it was being recorded as an antiquity, and the drawings and plans made during that period show both the substantial survival of the medieval structure and features that have since been lost.

The end of the friary did not, however, mean the abandonment of Court. The church and its immediate surroundings continued to be used for burial, preserving a connection between the medieval religious foundation and later generations of families from the surrounding district.

Court Abbey as a Burial Place

Although the friary ceased to function as a religious house following its suppression in the late sixteenth century, Court continued to be used as a place of burial. The graveyard surrounding the ruins preserves a continuity of burial extending across centuries, from members of the O’Hara family associated with the medieval foundation to generations of people from the surrounding community.

Figure 6. Later grave memorials within the ruins of Court Abbey, illustrating the continued use of the medieval church as a place of burial long after the dissolution of the friary. Photograph courtesy of the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland, reproduced with permission.

Local memory adds another important dimension to the surviving archaeology. Tradition records that pieces of fallen masonry from the ruined friary were sometimes reused as simple grave markers. In some cases these may appear today to be little more than rough stones or fragments of rubble. Their significance could therefore easily be overlooked once the local knowledge identifying them as grave markers disappears. The tradition is especially valuable because it preserves information that is unlikely ever to have appeared in written records.

Incised Medieval Artwork and Wall Painting

Among the most remarkable survivals at Court Abbey are the images and designs preserved on the internal walls of the church. Some were incised into surviving areas of plaster, while others were painted. Together they provide evidence for an interior that was considerably more decorated than the exposed stonework of the ruins might suggest today.

The best-known example is the depiction of a sailing ship, with elements of its hull, masts and rigging still discernible. Further details of ship imagery survive elsewhere, including part of a ship’s rigging on the west wall of the south transept. Ship images have also been recorded at the Franciscan friaries of Moyne in County Mayo and Ross Errilly in County Galway, placing the Court examples within a wider tradition of maritime imagery found in medieval religious buildings in the west of Ireland.

The meaning of the ship imagery at Court is uncertain. Ships could carry religious and symbolic associations in medieval Christian culture, but the images may equally have represented vessels familiar to those who created them. In the absence of contemporary evidence identifying their purpose or creators, a more specific interpretation would be speculative.

Figure 7. Incised design preserved on a surviving patch of medieval plaster within Court Abbey.

The ships form only one part of the surviving imagery. Elsewhere within the ruins are an IHS monogram, an interlaced cross, lattice-work and other geometric designs. Particularly interesting is a representation described as the nailed Hand of Christ in blessing, preserved on the plaster of the arch associated with one of the altars in the south transept. Some designs are deeply incised and clearly visible, while others survive only as faint lines across the plaster. They may not all belong to the same period, particularly given the long history of the building and its continued accessibility after the friary had ceased to function as a religious house.

Court also preserves evidence of medieval wall painting. Traces of paint on plaster were noted by Francis Grose in the eighteenth century, and remnants remain within the church. Modern research has identified a fragmentary representation of the Crucifixion, while some surviving decoration appears to have combined incision and paint. These traces, together with the incised religious imagery, give some indication of how different the interior of the medieval church would once have appeared.

The surviving artwork provides a different kind of evidence from the architecture and written records. The IHS monogram, crosses, Hand of Christ, ship imagery and other designs preserve individual acts of image-making within the church and offer a rare glimpse of its decoration and use. Their survival is particularly significant because plaster, paint and lightly incised designs are considerably more vulnerable to weathering and loss than the stone fabric of the building. Careful recording and conservation of these fragile remains is therefore an important part of preserving Court Abbey for the future.

The Wider Archaeological Landscape

Court Abbey formed part of a landscape with a much longer history of settlement and land use. Archaeological remains surrounding the friary include features that may have been associated with the religious community as well as others that appear to pre-date its foundation by several centuries.

Immediately to the east and south of Court is a surviving field system (SL032-047004-) consisting of at least eleven small rectangular fields. Their boundaries survive as low earthen banks, scarps and, in places, silted fosses. The individual plots vary considerably in size, from approximately 12 by 21 metres to 43 by 52 metres. The Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo suggests that these may represent gardens and paddocks associated with the friary. A comparable field system has been recorded around the ecclesiastical remains at Achonry.

Only about 20 metres east-south-east of the friary is a ringfort or rath (SL032-047003-). Ringforts generally date to the early medieval period and its presence indicates settlement in the immediate vicinity several centuries before Court was founded. A second ringfort (SL032-048—-) survives nearby in the adjoining townland of Carrownaworan.

Figure 8. Aerial view of Court Abbey and the earthwork features in the field east of the graveyard. Courtesy of Achonry Mullinabreena Community Enhancement Group.

The close proximity of the first ringfort to the friary is particularly interesting, although the relationship between the two sites is unknown. There is presently no evidence to establish whether the ringfort remained in use, was reused, or had already been abandoned when the Franciscan community became established at Court. Its presence nevertheless demonstrates that the friary was founded within a landscape already marked by earlier settlement.

Local tradition has also preserved accounts of features around Court that are not presently confirmed by the archaeological record, including an underground passage or tunnel associated with the site. Such traditions are important to record as part of local knowledge and memory, but until supported by archaeological evidence they cannot be treated as evidence for a known structure.

The surviving field system, nearby ringforts and other archaeological features considerably broaden our understanding of Court beyond the standing church and graveyard. Non-intrusive archaeological investigation of this wider landscape is currently underway. As that research is ongoing, its findings are not anticipated here and will be considered separately when the results become available.

Court Abbey Today

Court Abbey remains an important part of the medieval heritage of Achonry–Mullinabreena. The standing ruins, historic graveyard and surrounding archaeological remains preserve evidence for more than five centuries of religious, social and community history at the site.

In recent years, renewed attention has been given to the recording, investigation and preservation of Court Abbey. The monument has been adopted through the Heritage Council’s Adopt a Monument programme, bringing the local community together with archaeologists and other specialists to develop a better understanding of Court and help secure its long-term preservation.

In 2025, a detailed survey of the old and new graveyards at Court Abbey was undertaken by Achonry Mullinabreena Community Enhancement. Each grave and memorial was individually recorded and its location marked using GPS, allowing an accurate map of the burial grounds to be produced. Surviving names and inscriptions were also documented, with photographic and digital techniques used to assist in reading weathered or difficult inscriptions. Photogrammetry and 3D visualisation have been employed on selected memorials to reveal details that can be difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. When completed, the survey will provide a permanent record of the location of the graves, memorials and surviving names at Court, creating an important resource for families, local history and future research.

Figure 9. Court Abbey as it stands today, with the surviving medieval church and central tower overlooking the surrounding graveyard.

Conservation works to the medieval ruins are also planned and are due to begin later in 2026. These works represent an important stage in protecting the surviving fabric of the monument and ensuring that Court can continue to be studied and appreciated by future generations.

More than five centuries after its foundation, Court remains both an important medieval monument and a living part of the local landscape. Its surviving ruins, historic graveyard, archaeology and local traditions reflect the many different ways in which the site has been used, remembered and valued over the centuries.

Further reading

For further information on this subject, see the related material on the Achonry Mullinabreena Heritage & Culture website:

Court – A Franciscan Friary

Sources and References

Published Sources

• Egan, Ursula, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman, Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy. Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo. Dublin: Stationery Office, 2005.

• Gwynn, Aubrey and R. Neville Hadcock. Medieval Religious Houses: Ireland. London: Longman, 1970.

• McDermott, Yvonne. “Late Medieval Friaries in Sligo: History and Architecture.” In Sligo: History and Society, edited by Martin A. Timoney. Dublin: Geography Publications.

• O’Rorke, Terence. The History of Sligo: Town and County, Vol. II. Dublin, 1890.

• Grose, Francis. The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. I. London, 1791.

• From Plain to Hill: A Short History of the Parish of Achonry. Achonry/Mullinabreena local history publication.

• Conroy, Elaine. “Court Abbey, Lavagh, Co. Sligo.” Sligo Field Club Journal, Vol. 7, 2021.

• Timoney, Mary B. Had Me Made: A Study of the Grave Memorials of Co. Sligo from c.1650 to Present.

Archaeological Records

•National Monuments Service, Historic Environment Viewer / Sites and Monuments Record:

• SL032-047001- — Religious house: Franciscan friars, Lavagh (Court Abbey).

• SL032-047002- — Graveyard, Lavagh.

• SL032-047003- — Ringfort–rath, Lavagh.

• SL032-047004- — Field system, Lavagh.

• SL032-048—- — Ringfort–rath, Carrownaworan.

Historic Drawings and Plans

• Gabriel Beranger, eighteenth-century plan of Court Abbey.

• Angelo Maria Bigari, eighteenth-century drawings of Court Abbey.

• Grose, Francis. View of Court Abbey published in The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. I (1791).