One of the last remaining stone-roofed buildings in Ireland

Saint Mochta’s House is a rare stoned roofed building located in a private field overlooking Louth Village. It probably dates to the mid-12th century but legend says that it was built in a single night as a suitable resting place for its founder, Mochta, who died in 534. Its stone roof is similar to St Kevin’s Kitchen in Glendalough and his monastery here must have been important as it had a very turbulent history. It was plundered by Vikings in 830 and 839, by Muircheartach, King of Aileach in 968, and by ‘Eagle Knee’ O’Flaherty in 978. It was flattened by a storm in 986, burned in 1076, and again in 1111, 1113, 1148, 1160, 1164, and again in 1166! In the 1920s the structure was completely dismantled and rebuilt in an attempt to save it from damage caused by ivy. The 14th-century ruins of Saint Mary’s Monastery are located nearby. It is believed that Edward Bruce of Scotland stayed at the priory in 1315, leading to the estate being fined by the English crown. This, like all other monasteries, was later destroyed and plundered after King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.