Irish ruins aesthetic

Those early Irish saints seem to have been an astonishingly sedulous lot. When not rushing from one side of the country to another so as to convert any remaining pagans to Christianity, they were founding monasteries which, almost without fail, soon attracted thousands of followers. Such apparently was the case with Máel Anfaid (Mael the…

The hidden entrance, Glenarm Castle / Northern Ireland (by icecoldkitten)

View of the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, a monastery on Holy Island that dates to the 7th-century when St Aidan arrived here from Iona, at the request of King Oswald of Northumbria. In April 1536, there were over 850 monasteries, nunneries, and friaries scattered throughout England and Wales. By April 1540 there were none. In that period shrines to saints were destroyed, libraries were burned, and many precious relics were lost. Religious were made to wander the countryside, and travellers…

Robin Bury’s recently-published Buried Lives: The Protestants of Southern Ireland is, appropriately enough, something of a curate’s egg. However, the book provides a valuable account of the decline…

English ruins

💬 2 🔁 2743 ❤️ 4612 · Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, France *(by Andrew Hayman)

💬 0 🔁 27 ❤️ 55

Skellig Islands, off the Southwestern coast of Ireland, County Kerry. Famous natural rock formations, ancient hermit ruins, Gannets, and Puffins!