Ecclesiastical Sites.
in Donegal.

South of the town are the ruins of an Abbey founded in 1474 by the wife of Red Hugh O'Donnell, it was raided and occupied by the English in 1601 and was almost completely destroyed when a powder magazine exploded.

It was in this abbey that the Franciscans began to compile 'The Annals Of The Four Masters' a history of Ireland going back to 40 years before the flood. The work was completed at Ross Friary on Lough Melvin. A obelisk in the diamond commemorates the four Franciscans who wrote the annals. Brother Michael O'Cleary the chief annalist was from a local family.

For more than 1500 years pilgrims have been making their way to Lough Derg to the tiny Island known as 'Station Island'. The island is almost entirely built over. St Patrick is said to have spent forty day of fasting and prayer here to expel the last of the evil spirits from Ireland.

The pilgrimages today last for three days, during this time the pilgrims walk barefoot around the remains of monastic cells, eat only one meal a day of bread and black tea. They are not allowed to sleep on the first night, but can stay in the four storey hostel on the second. The island can accommodate up to 400 people at a time with as many as 15,000 visiting in one year. Pilgrims are allowed on the island only between June and August.

Just outside the town of Ballyshannon on the Rosnowlagh road stand the remains of Assaroe Abbey, built by the Cistercians the 12th century. The Cistercians demonstrated their grasp of hydrodynamics by installing on the site a water driven mill. Some five hundred years earlier monks at Nendrum County Down installed what is thought to be the earliest tide mill in Europe.

The two wheels installed by the monks have recently been restored, and now supply the power for the interpretation centre and craft shop.