An abbey under The Rock

Hore Abbey was founded in 1266 as a Benedictine abbey. Soon after, it was transferred to the ownership of the Cistercians after the Archbishop of Cashel David McCarvill, had a ‘paranoid dream’ that the Benedictine monks were about to kill him! Many of the same master craftsmen that worked on the nearby Rock of Cashel also worked here. Most of the abbey dates from the 13th century but the tower was added in the 15th century for extra protection. This was to be the last of the 35 Cistercian monasteries founded in Ireland.  It was dissolved in 1540 after the reformation and the property was transferred to James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, and later to Sir Henry Radcliffe. The word ‘hore’ is thought to derive from the word ‘iubhair’ for a yew tree.