My Visit to Jerpoint Abbey: Stonework, Stories, and the Silence of the Past

Hello friends, Aidan here from Gifts of Ireland 🇮🇪.

This week on my Story of Ireland, I took a trip to Jerpoint Abbey, just outside the town of Thomastown in County Kilkenny. The sun was shining, the skies were clear, and the road into the area had that quiet, small-town charm. But nothing quite prepared me for what we found when we pulled up—the scale of the abbey, the richness of its architecture, and the sheer presence of the place caught us off guard.

From the outside, Jerpoint Abbey rises like a puzzle of stone. Founded around 1158 by Donal MacGillapatrick, the King of Osraige, it was handed over to the Cistercians—an order known for their emphasis on simplicity, prayer, and manual work. But despite their minimalist ideals, what they built here is anything but plain. As we walked through, we were struck by the intricate stone carvings, cloister arcades, and detailed tombs that seem to tell their own quiet stories.

The cloister walkways are beautifully preserved, with pillars carved into the shapes of saints and bishops, and weathered faces peering from the past. Some of the figures are still clearly defined—hands raised in blessing, robes flowing—and you get a real sense of the artists who chiselled them, one strike at a time. It’s hard to believe such precision came from tools and techniques over 800 years old.

Inside the main church area, we found remnants of multiple chapels, a fine tower rising at the crossing, and burial sites that stretched through time. One of the most famous is that of FitzGerald of the Desmond line, showing how the abbey was a burial site for the powerful as well as the pious. You can feel the layers of time in the stonework—the weight of prayer, of power, of passing centuries.

Jerpoint was dissolved in 1540 during the Reformation, but its bones remain standing. The roof is mostly gone, but the stone has survived—the carvings, the arches, the sacred layout. We spent a long time wandering, filming, taking it all in. Every angle seemed to reveal something new. The sun played across the stone in a way that felt fitting—as though the past hadn’t quite let go.

There’s a stillness in Jerpoint Abbey, even with birds overhead and the sounds of the countryside nearby. It’s a place that invites you to take your time, walk slow, and listen. Not for noise, but for echoes.

Slán go fóill,

Aidan 💚🇮🇪☘️