About Aghadoe

Aghadoe is one of Killarney's most important sites in terms of built heritage and serene landscapes.  The viewing point on the hill of Aghadoe is located at the northern end of the Killarney Valley, overlooking Killarney Town on the left, Lough Lein and Muckross Lake in the centre and Killarneyas magnificent mountains from The Paps in the east through the Gap of Dunloe and on to the high and rugged McGillicuddy Reeks stretching to the Atlantic.

Aghadoe is a civil parish, it name means place of the two yews.  Aghadoe has been associated with the fifth century missionary St. Abban.   St. Finian founded a monastery at Aghadoe in the sixth or seventh century. The first written record of a monastery dates from 939 AD in the Annals of Innisfallen.  Aghadoe witnessed the turbulence of the times. In 1061, an O'Cathail, the heir to the local dynasty of Eaganacht Locha Lain, was taken from the church and murdered. In the middle of the twelfth century Amhlaoibh Mar a Donoghue, the leader of the a Donoghueathe new rulers of Eaganacht Locha Lain, had a new church building, later called the Great Church, constructed in the Romanesque style. The new structure, completed in 1158, incorporated part of the old stone building in its northwest section and makes up the western section of the extant remains. The final addition to the church was constructed in the twelfth century.

The church is mentioned in a 1615 report, but it is excluded from a list of abbeys in the report suggesting it had become only an archdeaconry. The town of Aghadoe was sacked in the 1650s by Cromwell's forces.