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Glendalough's Lesser Monastery: Reefert Church and St Saviour's Priory

Wicklow, Ireland

easy
history

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Reefert Wanderer

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200

XP

1 day

Glendalough's Lesser Monastery: Reefert Church and St Saviour's Priory

easy
history

200 XP

Almost everyone who comes to Glendalough stops at the round tower and the gateway and goes home. Two of the best things here are past that point. Reefert Church, up past the Upper Lake and the Poulanass waterfall, is the 11th-century 'church of the kings' where the O'Toole and O'Byrne chiefs were buried — plain, small and much older-looking than anything in the main enclosure. And St Saviour's Priory, founded around 1162 by St Laurence O'Toole, stands three-quarters of a mile east of the monastic city, with carving on it that nothing else at Glendalough has.

Required Activities

1

of 5

Walk up past the Upper Lake and the Poulanass waterfall to Reefert Church, the 11th-century 'church of the kings' where the O'Toole and O'Byrne chiefs were buried

2

of 5

Find St Saviour's Priory, founded around 1162 by St Laurence O'Toole, three-quarters of a mile east of the main monastic city

3

of 5

Compare Reefert's plain 11th-century stonework with the more elaborate later buildings in the main monastic enclosure

4

of 5

Visit Glendalough Visitor Centre for context on the seven churches that make up the site

5

of 5

Look across the Upper Lake to St Kevin's Bed, the cave cut into the cliff face and reachable only by boat

  • Walk up past the Upper Lake and the Poulanass waterfall to Reefert Church, the 11th-century 'church of the kings' where the O'Toole and O'Byrne chiefs were buried

  • Find St Saviour's Priory, founded around 1162 by St Laurence O'Toole, three-quarters of a mile east of the main monastic city

  • Compare Reefert's plain 11th-century stonework with the more elaborate later buildings in the main monastic enclosure

  • Visit Glendalough Visitor Centre for context on the seven churches that make up the site

  • Look across the Upper Lake to St Kevin's Bed, the cave cut into the cliff face and reachable only by boat

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Challenge Location

XP Breakdown

Challenge XP

200 XP


Potential total

200 XP

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