We came here late in the evening, after dinner, past 9 pm, and stayed for about half an hour. This was the first time that we visited a site at this time of the day. Generally we prefer to arrive at the sites in the full daylight to get better photos, but this time the sun was almost perfect at its setting and gave the place a wonderful golden colour.
The air was clear and we could see for tens of miles all around.
Anyway we'd like to go back again with more time to look at the many details we had to skip over.
This is the place where in 433 St. Patrick lit up a Paschal fire to challenge High King Laoire who forbid any other fire in Ireland while a sacred fire was burning on the Hill of Tara. Rather than punish him for his affront, Laoire was impressed by Patrick's devotion to his religion and allowed him to continue in his mission.
What we see today are the ruins of a Franciscan Friary church and a Franciscan College, both on the top of the hill and founded by Christpher Flemyng, Baron of Slane.
The Slane Friary was built in 1512 on the site of an earlier monastery, whose origines date back to the end of the 5th century when St. Erc founded it. This first monastery was replaced by a new construction in medieval times.
The outstanding element of the ruins is the gothic tower that is about 19 metres high. The friary was abandoned in 1723.
The College was built at the beginning of the 16th century for priests, lay-brothers and choristers.
We came here for the first time was on May 3rd, 2002.
UPDATE: June 5th, 2017 - A new visit to Hill of Slane, we took some new photos, they are the last 9 photos in this page.
|