HORE ABBEY

HORE ABBEY, a parish, in the barony of MIDDLETHIRD, county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER, adjoining the city of Cashel, and containing 451 inhabitants. This parish is chiefly distinguished as the site of a monastery, founded near the cathedral, and called Hore Abbey and also the Abbey of St. Mary of the Rock of Cashel. It was originally of the Benedictine order, but, in 1269, or 1272, the Archbishop David McCarvill, having dreamed that the monks made an attempt on his life, violently dispossessed them of their house and lands, which he gave to a body of Cistertian monks from the abbey of Mellifont, in the county of Louth, and at the same time took on him the habit of that order. It subsisted till the dissolution, when Patrick Stackboll, the last abbot, surrendered it with all its possessions, which, in 1561, were granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Henry Radcliffe, Knt.; it was afterwards granted to James Butler, and in the 42nd of the same reign was granted to Thomas Sinclair, at the annual rent of 2s.; it is now, with the greater part of the parish, the property of the Earl of Mount-Cashel. The parish comprises 1519 statute acres; the land is of good quality, and the system of agriculture improved. The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cashel, and in the patronage of the Archbishop: the tithes amount to £166. 3. 1. There is neither church, glebe-house, nor glebe. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Cashel. There is a private school, in which about 70 children are taught. There are considerable remains of the abbey church, most of which is entire, they consist of the nave, choir, and central tower, the last supported on two lofty arches; the nave is separated from the aisles by a series of three pointed arches, of which that of the north side has been levelled; the choir has an east window of small size and plain design, and in the side walls are some stalls; a small low arched apartment, with niches in the walls, appears to have been a confessional; the vaulting of the tower is richly groined, and many of the details are of elegant character.