Gortnahoe, Gort na hUamha, Co. Tipperary

Gort na hUamha · Co. Tipperary

A Cistercian ruin, a seam of anthracite, and hurling as religion.

Gortnahoe sits on the R689, five kilometres south of Urlingford, in the low folded hills of the Slieveardagh range. The name translates as 'field of the cave or souterrain' - something underground has been part of this place's identity since before the Normans arrived. It's a small village: a crossroads, a pub, a church, a GAA pitch. If you blink, you've seen it. Stop anyway.

Two kilometres east, down a lane on the private Kilcooley Estate, stands what most people in this part of Tipperary will tell you is the finest thing for miles. Kilcooley Abbey was founded in 1182 by Cistercian monks from Jerpoint. Burnt in 1418, almost levelled in 1445, rebuilt, dissolved at the Reformation, handed to the Earl of Ormond, passed along. The ruins that remain include a screen wall with some of the best surviving Gothic sculpture in Ireland - apostles, a crucifixion, a mermaid combing her hair. And a butler's tomb carved by Rory O'Tunney, the same sculptor who worked at Jerpoint.

Below the abbey's history runs the coalfield's. The Slieveardagh Hills hold one of Ireland's only anthracite seams. Commercial mining ran from the 1820s until the late 1980s, when the last operations closed. The landscape still carries it - engine-house footings, overgrown spoil heaps, the memory of a colliery economy that shaped this part of south Tipperary for a hundred and fifty years. Kilcooley Abbey and a worked-out coalfield are not the obvious pairing, but in Gortnahoe they're two kilometres apart and they explain each other.

Population

~250

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

Village in five minutes; coalfield hills beyond

Founded

Settlement pre-Norman; ringforts recorded

Coords

52.6078° N, 7.5867° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The abbey

Eight centuries of stone, two kilometres east.

Kilcooley Abbey dates to 1182 - founded by monks from Jerpoint on land given by the King of Thomond. Burnt twice, rebuilt once, dissolved at the Reformation. The carvings on the screen wall are still there. So is a mermaid.

Stories & lore → 02 The coalfield

Ireland mined anthracite in these hills for centuries.

The Slieveardagh coalfield runs through this ground - 11km long, 5km wide, midway between Thurles and Kilkenny. Commercial mining ran from the 1820s to the late 1980s. The seams are anthracite. The landscape still carries the evidence.

Stories & lore → 03 The GAA

One club, two parishes, first mentioned 1886.

Gortnahoe and Glengoole had separate hurling clubs for generations before the 'one club one parish' rule brought them together in 1961. Tipperary Intermediate Hurling Championship, 2020. The pitch is the social centre; the parish is the proof.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Campion's Pub

Local, straightforward

Village pub

The pub in the village. No frills, no food menu to speak of, no agenda. The kind of place that fills on match days and empties slowly afterwards.

Prout's Pub

Quiet, regular

Village pub

Also in the village. Two pubs is the right number for a place this size. One for the match, one for when you need a quieter pint afterwards.

03 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Kilcooley's screen wall

The mermaid in the abbey

When the Cistercian monks rebuilt Kilcooley Abbey after the fire of 1445, they commissioned carvings for the chancel screen wall that have no real equivalent in Ireland. Among the apostles and the crucifixion scenes is a mermaid - carved in stone, holding a comb and a mirror, on the wall of a twelfth-century monastery. Nobody is quite sure what she's doing there. The tomb of Piers Fitz Oge Butler nearby was carved by Rory O'Tunney in 1526, the same hand that worked the limestone at Jerpoint. The estate is private, but the ruins have public access. The lane from the car park at the Protestant church takes you right to the door.

Slieveardagh coalfield

The anthracite hills

The Slieveardagh Hills around Gortnahoe sit above one of Ireland's only coalfields - a seam of anthracite, high quality but fractured and thin, that runs roughly 11 kilometres across east Tipperary. By the early 1800s, an estimated 35 collieries were operating in these hills, employing around 1,000 men. The Mining Company of Ireland arrived in 1824 and worked the field for over sixty years, building Mardyke - the first planned mining village in Ireland - and investing in engine houses and underground drainage. The last commercial mining ended in the late 1980s. Over 500 features survive in the landscape: basset pits, chimney stacks, engine-house walls, miners' cottages. They're mapped now; the tipperarycoalmines.ie heritage project documents all of them.

The oldest image of the game

The hurley carved in stone

On the east window of Kilcooley Abbey, carved sometime in the fifteenth century, is an image of a hurley and sliotar. Scholars have called it the earliest depiction of hurling in stone anywhere in Ireland. Eight hundred years later, Gortnahoe-Glengoole GAA was winning the Tipperary Intermediate Hurling Championship. The game has barely left this parish in the intervening centuries.

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Slieveardagh Hills are quiet and green. Good light for the abbey ruins. No crowds.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Kilcooley is never overrun. The estate lane is accessible. Long evenings make the hills walkable.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Hurling championship season. The parish is most itself in September. The abbey in October light is worth the detour alone.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The lane to Kilcooley can be rough in wet weather. The pubs are open; the abbey is exposed. Dress accordingly.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating Kilcooley as a quick stop

The screen wall carvings need ten minutes of standing still. The Butler tomb needs another five. Rushing it is the one mistake worth avoiding.

Expecting open hours or a visitor centre

There is no visitor centre. It's a ruin on a private estate with public access. The lane, the gravel, the unlocked gate - that's it. Go anyway.

Getting there.

By car

From Thurles, take the R660 east through Killenaule and then north on the R689 - about 25 minutes. From Kilkenny city, the N76 to Urlingford and then the R689 south is roughly 45 minutes. Urlingford, just 5km north on the R689, connects to the M8 Dublin-Cork motorway.

By bus

No direct bus service to Gortnahoe. The nearest served town is Thurles (Bus Éireann mainline). A car is needed from there.

By train

Thurles station is the nearest - on the Dublin Heuston to Cork line. About 25 minutes by car from there.