One of Ireland’s finest High Crosses

St Columcille founded 26 monasteries before he reached the age of 25. Durrow was one of the first and was also regarded as one of the most important places of learning in the country. The famous illuminated Book of Durrow was produced here in the 7th AD and is the earliest surviving fully decorated book of the Gospels. It had been buried for hundreds of years and turned up on a farmer’s land after the dissolution of the monasteries. You can see the Durrow Cross and several cross-slabs in a small exhibition within a conserved church at this site. On July 1054, according to a record in the Annals Of The Four Masters, monks in Durrow Abbey observed a bright star that appeared overnight. Their observation is the only known European sighting of the 1054 Supernova. Other known observations were recorded in China. Beside this church are some of the only remaining pre-medieval oak in the country that marked an ancient highway of Ireland.