The Franciscan friary of Irrelagh, known as “Muckross Abbey” was founded for the Observatine Franciscans about 1448, by Daniel McCarthy Mor. The friars remained in occupation at Muckross at least intermittently and despite the dissolution of the monasteries until Cromwellian times. The present well-preserved ruins include a church with a wide, square tower and fine windows, and a vaulted cloister with an arcade of arches around a square courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard grows an ancient yew tree, said traditionally to be as old as the Abbey.