Timoleague Abbey Ruins

I’ve been waking up at 10am since I’ve arrived. Madness…. feels like I’ve slept half the day away. I didn’t have anything planned for this trip, other than R&R, so on a whim, took a drive to Timoleague to see the abbey ruins. Another white-knuckle drive and stopped for fuel along the way. I went to pump petrol and this elderly gentlemen insisted on pumping it for me. He gave me directions to Timoleague, told me to stay in Ireland, then went on his merry way.

The abbey is in the middle of a tiny village, where the only thing that was open was the corner shop. There is a preschool opposite the abbey and I had the ruins to myself. Old and new graves fill in the nooks and crannies in the abbey, along with more graves outside the walls. One grave dates back to 1603. I sat next to that one for a while, having a one-sided conversation with Eoin. His headstone is written in Gaelic and is incredibly well-preserved. Others are way more recent and haven’t fared as well.

I walked around all the graves, and one of the little kids at the school saw me and yelled GRAVE ROBBER. I had to laugh even though he was very serious about his accusation, even going so far as to call his teacher to inform her of the goings on in the cemetery. Given there were signs around warning against the hazards of grave digging, maybe he was right to be so mad about it.

There was a headstone for a Gaelic authoress and this is her story.

I’d initially planned to stop at a castle on the way home but I spent more time than expected at the abbey, so the castle can wait until some other time.