Nice print titled Entrance doorway of Temple M'Durmot, Clonmacnoise, from steel engraving with fine detail and clear impression. Overall size is 27 x 21 cm, image size is 18 x 12 cm. Print was published in: The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland. Illustrated in one hundred and twenty engravings, from drawings by W.H. Bartlett, London, James S. Virtue, 1840-1842.

Clonmacnoise

The monastery of Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis in Irish, meaning  "Meadow of the Sons of Nós", is situated in County Offaly, Ireland on the River  Shannon south of Athlone.

Clonmacnoise was founded in 544 by St. Ciarán, a young man from Rathcroghan,  County Roscommon. (Not to be confused or conflated with St. Ciarán of Saigir,  patron of Osraige). Until the 9th century it had close associations with the  kings of Connacht. The strategic location of the monastery helped it become a  major centre of religion, learning, craftsmanship, and trade by the 9th century  and together with Clonard it was the most famous in Ireland, visited by scholars  from all over Europe. From the ninth until the eleventh century it was allied  with the kings of Meath. Many of the high kings of Tara (ardrí) and Connacht  were buried here.

The preserved ruin is managed by the Office of Public Works. An Interpretive  Centre is open to the public, the graveyard is in use and religious services are  held in a modern chapel.

Cathedral (Temple McDermot)

Building started around 909 by King Flann Sinna and Abbot  Colmán mac Ailella. The west doorway has been recently (and somewhat  controversially), comprehensively restored with the Gothic-style north doorway,  often called the Whispering Arch, dating to the mid-15th century. The Cathedral  is the largest of the churches at Clonmacnoise. Rory O'Connor, the last High  King of Ireland, was buried near the altar in 1198, joining his father Turlough.  Most of the graves currently seen in the church are those of the Coghlan family,  whose patriarch extensively rebuilt the cathedral in the mid-seventeenth  century.