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Durrow Abbey

The Municipal District of Tullamore, Italy

Durrow Abbey

Durrow Abbey is a historic site in Durrow, County Offaly in Ireland. It is 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of the centre of Tullamore (8 kilometres (5 mi) via the N52 road). Largely undisturbed, the site is an early medieval monastic complex of ecclesiastical and secular monuments, visible and sub-surface

. Durrow was probably founded by Columba around the 550s, and during his life and for centuries after was a well known centre of education. The Venerable Bede called it Monasterium nobile in Hiberniâ, and, at a later period, Armagh and Durrow were called the "Universities of the West". Durrow, like Clonard, Derry, and most other monasteries in the area, was frequently ravaged by the Vikings, but was not completely destroyed until the Norman invasion. The famous illuminated manuscript Book of Durrow, now at Trinity College, Dublin, was at the abbey by 916 at the latest, although it may have been made elsewhere. Discovered in the hands of a local farmer after the Reformation, the book is regarded as the earliest surviving fully decorated Insular Gospel book. It is believed to date from the 7th or 8th century, though the date is a matter of long-standing controversy. The extant monuments at...

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