Muckross Abbey stands on the east side of Lough Leane, about three miles south of Killarney, inside Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Donal McCarthy Mor founded it for the Observantine Franciscans in 1448. It was earlier known as the Friary of Irrelagh. It was attacked during the Desmond Rebellions in the late sixteenth century.
In 1652 Cromwellian troops under Edmond Ludlow removed the roof, killed several Franciscans and forced the others to flee, mainly to France. The friary was then abandoned. It is now largely roofless but retains most of its original walls.
It has a rectangular nave and chancel separated by a central tower, with a south transept and a cloister. A large yew tree, traditionally believed to be several centuries old, stands in the cloister courtyard. Chieftains and poets were buried here in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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