Overview
Saints’ Island lies in Lough Ree near Newtowncashel. A narrow causeway links it to the mainland. The Longford visitor guide describes the remains of the Augustinian Priory of All Saints on the north-west corner of the island, and the reed-fringed shore draws curlews, lapwings and wintering ducks.
The causeway and the ruins have separate access arrangements, so check before you travel, keep entrances clear and leave the ruins undisturbed. The chapel is the one thing to see, open to the sky and still holding the scale of the original church.
History and heritage
The island’s religious story reaches back to the early sixth century. Tradition holds that St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise founded a church here before 542 AD, though the evidence is thin; some later accounts credit St Kevin instead, a sign of how much of this rests on layered oral tradition.
It was not always a peaceful place. In 1089 the island was attacked and plundered by Muirchertach O’Brien and a force of Danes, an event set down in the annals. By 1185 Sir Henry Dillon had been granted the lands that include Saints’ Island, and an entry in the Annals of Connacht for 1272 attributes the building of the Augustinian Priory of All Saints to Dillon.
The priory did well under Abbot Augustin Magraidhin in the fourteenth century. Before his death in 1405 he compiled two manuscript collections, the lives of Irish saints and the Annals of the Priory, now held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The surviving fragment covers 1397 to 1407 and includes a rare Irish account of King Richard II’s 1399 expedition to Ireland. Like every monastic house, the community declined after the dissolution under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and by the late seventeenth century the island’s house was recorded as “ruined”.
The poet Ted Hughes fished Lough Ree with the painter Barrie Cooke and came away with a poem, “Saint’s Island” (1986), a small literary footnote to the place.
Exploring the ruins
The chapel is the largest surviving structure. Its Gothic windows, especially the carved altar window, drop shafts of light onto the weathered floor, and with the roof long gone you get the full height of the old worship space.
To the north you can still trace the faint square of the cloister garth, which marks out where the chapter house, refectory and two-storey dormitory once stood. West of the chapel, a solitary medieval latrine survives, a practical reminder of monastic daily life.
The walls and arches are fragile. Do not climb on them, and leave the ruins as you find them.
Wildlife and birdwatching
The reed-fringed shoreline is the draw for birds. In spring and autumn the marshes can hold curlews, lapwings, teal, wigeon and other ducks. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for migrating flocks. Binoculars help, though a good deal is visible from the causeway with the naked eye.
Practical information
- Access – A narrow causeway links the island to the mainland near Newtowncashel. The causeway and the ruins have separate access arrangements, so check the current position with Longford County Council before you set out. Do not assume the causeway is passable, particularly after heavy rain or storms.
- Facilities – Do not count on any facilities. Bring water and footwear for uneven ground, and take your litter home.
- Accessibility – The causeway is uneven and difficult for wheelchairs or push-chairs.
- Parking – Check the current parking position and the condition of the causeway before you travel.
- Walking nearby – For a public walk in County Longford, see Waterways Ireland’s Longford Greenway guide.
Nearby attractions
Saints’ Island works well as one stop on a Lough Ree day out:
- Inis Clothrann (Quaker Island) – Another monastic island with extensive ruins.
- Barley Harbour – A quiet limestone harbour on the lake’s edge.
- Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre – An Iron-Age bog road, near Keenagh.
- Abbeylara – A Cistercian abbey a few kilometres inland.