Drumlane Monastry

Drumlane Monastry is located just outside the small village of Milltown, about 4 miles from Belturbet. The monastry occupies a very scenic site on the edge of a lake which forms one of the northwesterly outliers from Lough Oughter. It was reputedly founded by St. Mogue, the Bishop of Ferns, in the 6th century, though some have argued that St. Columcille was the original founder and that St. Mogue simply re-established it.

St. Mary's priory for the Augustinian canons was founded here in the 12th Century. The remains are of a round tower, church, graveyard, fragments of a cross-inscribed stone and the site of a priory. The round tower is one of the most striking features of the complex, standing to over 11m in height. Look out for the carvings of birds on the on the external wall, 2.2 metres above ground level.
 
The gate at the entrance to the graveyard also features a stone carving, this time in the form of a small cross. The church features a number of interesting stone heads, one above the door in the west wall and another three on the external face of the east window.

About 150 metres south of the church there are a series of earthworks which probably represent the remains of the 12th Century Augustinian Priory. The Priory may have been demolished after the suppression of the monasteries in the 15th and 16th centuries.

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