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More than 300 monastic houses existed in Irelandby the early 16th century. Remains still stand of over 200 of them, all of them described in this book. Most of them are freely accessible ruins although there are eleven former monastic chruches still roofed and in use.
The common monastic form with a cruciform church and various domestic buildings arranged arounda square cloister arrived in Ireland with the Cistercians in the 12th century. Some of the many houses of Augustinian regular canons had layouts similar to the Cistercian Abbeys. Others were small and poor with simple nave and chancel churches without cloister or full layout of domestic buildings.
Other orders represented bymonastic remains in Ireland include Benedictine monks, the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller and Premonstratensian regular canons. Half of all Irish monasteries were houses of the various orders of friars. The earliest Irish friaries were mostly in English speaking towns but in the late medieval period, many new friaries, many Franciscan were founded in the rural Gaelic speaking areas of Munster, Connaught and Donegal
