Prióireacht San Ualstain [1] | |
![]() Remnants of the abbey, viewed from the north. | |
Location relative to Dublin | |
Monastery information | |
---|---|
Other names | Scala Caeli |
Order | Victorines |
Established | 1202/05 |
Mother house | Abbey of Saint-Victor, Paris |
Diocese | Dublin |
People | |
Founder(s) | Adam de Hereford |
Architecture | |
Status | ruined |
Style | Norman |
Site | |
Location | St. Wolstan's, Celbridge, County Kildare |
Coordinates | 53°20′37″N6°31′02″W / 53.343605°N 6.517151°W |
Visible remains | two gateways, tower |
Public access | No |
St. Wolstan's Priory is a former Augustinian (Victorine) monastery located in County Kildare, Ireland. [2]
St. Wolstan's Priory is located on the eastern edge of Celbridge, on the south bank of the River Liffey; it lies 1 km (0.62 mi) southeast of Castletown House and about 1.8 km (1.1 mi) east-northeast of Celbridge's Main Street.
The priory was founded in 1202 (or, according to William of Ware, 1205) by Adam de Hereford, one of the Anglo-Norman leaders of the Norman conquest of Ireland. It was founded for canons of the order of St Victor and was named after the recently canonised Saint Wulfstan (died 1095). The early buildings were nicknamed Scala Coeli, "stairs of heaven." [3]
The monastery was granted the lands around Donaghcumper Church. In 1271 William de Mandesham, seneschal to Fulk Basset, Archbishop of Dublin, granted to the priory the lands of Tristildelane, modern Castledillon.[ citation needed ]
In 1308 a bridge across the River Liffey was built at his own expense by John Le Decer, Mayor of Dublin, next to the gate of St. Wolstan's. [4] In 1314 the churches of Stacumney and Donaghmore were granted to the sole and separate use of the prior.[ citation needed ]
In 1536 the priory and lands were seized by King Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was the first monastery in Ireland to be suppressed and the last prior, Richard Weston, was granted a room in the monastery and supplied with food and fuel for the rest of his life. [5] It was granted to John Alan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in 1538. [6]
The buildings of the priory were probably converted into a house for Sir John Alan before his death in 1561. [7] The Alen family lived at St. Wolstans for 216 years. They resided in the priory for much of this period and later built the house. [5]
In 1782 the ruins were visited and sketched by Austin Cooper (1759–1830). [8]
In 1955 the site was purchased by the Holy Faith Sisters, who established St. Wolstan's Holy Faith Convent School. The school has since moved site but retains the name of St Wolstan's Community School.
It was partially excavated in 2002 as part of an archeological assessment, but nothing of significance was found. [9]
The remains consist of two gateways, a four-storey tower, and two fragments. [3] [10]
Wulfstan was Bishop of Worcester from 1062 to 1095. He was the last surviving pre-Conquest bishop. Wulfstan is a saint in the Western Christian churches.
Celbridge is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Ireland. It is 23 km (14 mi) west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the R403 and R405 regional roads. As of the 2022 census, Celbridge was the third largest town in County Kildare by population, with 20,601 residents.
Straffan is a village in County Kildare, Ireland, situated on the banks of the River Liffey, 25 km upstream of the Irish capital Dublin. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 853, a nearly two-fold increase since the 2006 census.
Clane is a town in County Kildare, Ireland, 35.4 km (22 mi) from Dublin. Its population of 8,152 in 2022 makes it the ninth largest town in Kildare and the 66th largest in Ireland. It is on the River Liffey. Clane gives its name to the associated townland, civil parish, electoral division and barony.
Ardclough, officially Ardclogh, is a village and community in the parish of Kill, County Kildare, Ireland. It is two miles (3 km) off the N7 national primary road. It is the burial place and probable birthplace of Arthur Guinness, who is said to have returned to the maternal homestead of the Reads at Huttonread to give birth in the tradition of the time.
County Kildare in the province of Leinster, Ireland, was first defined as a diocese in 1111, shired in 1297 and assumed its present borders in 1836. Its location in the Liffey basin on the main routes from Dublin to the south and west meant it was a valuable possession and important theatre of events throughout Irish history.
Oughterard is an ecclesiastical hilltop site, graveyard, townland, and formerly a parish, borough and royal manor in County Kildare, nowadays part of the community of Ardclough, close to the Dublin border. It is the burial place of Arthur Guinness.
Sir Thomas Allen, 1st Baronet was the eldest son of John Alen of St. Wolstan's, near Celbridge, County Kildare and Anne, daughter of Thomas Dillon of Riverstown, County Meath. He was the grandnephew of John Alan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who acquired St Wolstan's on the dissolution of the monasteries.
Celbridge Abbey is located in Celbridge, County Kildare in Ireland.
Events from the year 1536 in Ireland.
Castledillon is a townland and former parish on the River Liffey near Straffan situated on the banks of the River Liffey 25 km upstream from the Irish capital Dublin.
Kilteel is the name of a village, townland and civil parish located in the barony of South Salt, County Kildare, Ireland. The townland of Kilteel Upper contains the remains of a church with a decorated Romanesque chancel arch, the ruins of a 13th-century preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller and a well-preserved 15th-century tower house. The historic settlement is located on the southwest corner of the English Pale and served an important function as a border fortress during the medieval period.
Sir Gerald Aylmer was an Irish judge in the time of Henry VIII, who played a key part in enforcing the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His numerous descendants included the Barons Aylmer.
Leixlip is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between the ancient kingdoms of Leinster and Brega, as an outpost of The Pale, and on Kildare's border with County Dublin. Leixlip was also a civil parish in the ancient barony of Salt North.
Sir John Alan was a leading English-born statesman in sixteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Though he was childless himself, one of his brothers, William, founded a prominent landowning dynasty in County Kildare. The family's holdings included lands at Celbridge, St. Wolstan's and Kilteel, County Kildare, as well as substantial lands in County Dublin. They also acquired a baronetcy.
Adam de Hereford was one of the first generation of Norman colonisers in Ireland.
St. Wolstan's Community School is an all-female community school, under the trusteeship of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, the Holy Faith Sisters and Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board situated in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the only all-girls community school in Ireland.
Donaghcumper Church is a ruined medieval church in Celbridge, Ireland. On the Record of Monuments and Places it bears the code KD011-013.
John Le Decer was a fourteenth-century Mayor of Dublin, who had a notable record of charitable works and civic improvement.