The monastery was founded in the 7th century as a series of timber constructions. The surviving stone buildings were built between the 11^th and 14^th centuries including a church, abbots House and one of the best preserved round towers in the country. The monastery survived various raids including from vikings and has been abondoned since the 15^th century. The entrance to the tower is 7 meters above the ground to protect the monks from vikings, when a monk would see vikings approach they would climb a rope ladder into the tower and ring a bell to alert the others who would all climb up the ladder and pull it behind them.

The monastery is full of celtic crosses, this is a Christian cross with a circle around the cross. The Celts were sun worshippers and many of their symbols were used by the Christians to make Christianity more appealing to them.

"Legend has it that St Coleman McDuagh was wondering around the woods when his belt fell to the ground, he took this as a sign from God to build a monastery."