St. Flannan founded a monastery here in the early 7th century. He was consecrated the first Bishop of Killaloe by Pope John IV during a pilgrimage to Rome in 639.
This small building was probably built between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century. Once it was a nave and chancel church, with the chancel accessed from the nave through an arched passage which still survives along with the traces of the disappeared chancel.
In the west (260°) gable is a three-order Romanesque doorway that was inserted to replace a less elaborate doorway. Its capitals are decorated with animals and foliate carvings, but they are very weathered and almost invisible now.
The building might have been built to house the relics of St. Flannan. Today only fragments of the building are stored into it.
The oratory has two storeys. The ground floor has a stone vaulted ceiling. The first floor is in the space between the vaulted ceiling and the steep stone roof, just like St. Colmcille's and St. Mochta's.
We came here for the first time on June 11th, 2001.
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