Impressive church with some of the finest effigies in Ireland

St Mary’s of Gowran was established as a collegiate church in 1275. These clerics lived in a community but did not submit to the rule of a monastery. They lived in a house beside the church however was destroyed. The church is has a long chancel and many ornamental details. The tower was added for defense in the late middle ages and was eventually incorporated into the 19th-century parish church. There are a number of interesting carved effigies and tombstones preserved in the tower including two 14th century effigies of a man and woman who are probably James Butler, the first Earl of Ormond, and Lady Eleanor de Bohun. Other important artifacts include a 13th-century effigy of a priest, a 16th-century altar tomb of the Butlers, and a cross-inscribed ogham stone.