Founded in the latter half of the 15th century by the McSwiny Doe family, this religious house served the Franciscan Third Order Regular, a branch of the Franciscan movement that allowed lay people to live according to religious principles whilst remaining in the secular world. The friary would have been a modest establishment, providing spiritual guidance and community support to the local population during a period when such institutions formed the backbone of Irish rural life.

The friary’s existence came to an end in the early 17th century during the widespread dissolution and redistribution of church lands that followed the English Reformation’s reach into Ireland. In 1612, the property was sold to Sir Ralph Bingley, an English settler who likely repurposed the lands for agricultural use. This transfer marked the end of over a century of religious life at the site, part of the broader transformation of Irish society under English rule.

Today, visitors to the area will find no visible remnants of the friary buildings; time, weather, and perhaps the reuse of stone for other construction projects have erased all physical traces of this once vital religious community. The site serves as a poignant reminder of Ireland’s lost medieval heritage, where countless small religious houses once dotted the landscape, their stories preserved only in historical records and local memory.