Seir Kieran

Seir Kieran lies in the modern village of Clareen. This is the site of an important monastery founded by St Ciaran in the fifth century. Visible in the field to the south of the graveyard there is a low motte on top of which a timber castle was built by the Anglo-Normans in the twelfth century. Inside the graveyard are the remains of the Augustinian priory, with a late medieval gun turret on its southeast corner and the base of a Round Tower outside its northwest corner. In the east gable of the Church of Ireland church there is a fine thirteenth century traceried window. The decorated base of a large high cross, the shaft and head of which are now missing can still be seen in the centre of the graveyard. The feast of St Kieran is on March the 5th when local people visit the nearby holy well, St Ciaran’s holy bush and the church and graveyard.