St. Wolstan's Priory is a former Augustinian ( Victorine) monastery located in

County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...

, Ireland.

Location

St. Wolstan's Priory is located on the eastern edge of Celbridge, on the south bank of the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

; it lies southeast of

Castletown House Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, is a Palladian country house built in 1722 for William Conolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. It formed the centrepiece of an estate. The estate was sold in 1965, and late ...

and about east-northeast of Celbridge's Main Street.

History

The priory was founded in 1202 (or, according to

William of Ware William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

, 1205) by

Adam de Hereford Adam de Hereford was one of the first generation of Norman colonisers in Ireland. Naval commander He was the Norman commander at a naval battle in 1174 when a fleet of thirty-two ships from Cork, carrying armed men under the command of Gilbert, ...

, one of the Anglo-Norman leaders of the

Norman conquest of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

. It was founded for canons of the order of St Victor and was named after the recently canonised

Saint Wulfstan Wulfstan ( – 20 January 1095) was an English Benedictine monk who served as Bishop of Worcester from 1062 to 1095. He was the last surviving pre-Norman Conquest bishop. Wulfstan is a saint in the Western Christian churches. Denomination ...

(died 1095). The early buildings were nicknamed ''Scala Coeli'', "stairs of heaven." The monastery was granted the lands around

Donaghcumper Church Donaghcumper Church is a ruined medieval church in Celbridge, Ireland. On the Record of Monuments and Places it bears the code ''KD011-013''. Location Donaghcumper Church is located 800 m (½ mile) east of Celbridge town centre, on the R403 ...

. In 1271 William de Mandesham,

seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

Fulk Basset Fulk Basset (died 4 May 1271) was archbishop of Dublin. He was the elder brother of John de Sandford, who was also Archbishop of Dublin from 1284 to 1290. He was called Fulk de Sandford and also Fulk Basset, owing to his relationship to the pr ...

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin () is an Episcopal polity, archiepiscopal title which takes its name from Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Since the Reformation in Ireland, Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: ...

, granted to the priory the lands of Tristildelane, modern Castledillon. In 1308 a bridge across the

was built at his own expense by

John Le Decer John Le Decer (died 1332) was a fourteenth-century Mayor of Dublin, who had a notable record of charitable works and civic improvement. John Le Decer served as mayor on six occasions, in 1302, 1305, from 1307 to 1309 and in 1324. He was a man of ...

Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin () is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent, since December 2024, is Fine Gael councillor Emma ...

, next to the gate of St. Wolstan's. In 1314 the churches of Stacumney and Donaghmore were granted to the sole and separate use of the prior. In 1536 the priory and lands were seized by

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...

as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was the first monastery in Ireland to be suppressed and the last prior, Richard Weston, was granted a room in the monastery and supplied with food and fuel for the rest of his life. It was granted to

John Alan Sir John Alan (also spelt Alen or Alleyn; c. 1500 – 1561) was a leading English-born statesman in sixteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Chancellor of th ...

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

, in 1538.Betham, William ''"Baronetage of England"'' London 1803 The buildings of the priory were probably converted into a house for Sir

before his death in 1561. The Alen family lived at St. Wolstans for 216 years. They resided in the priory for much of this period and later built the house. In 1782 the ruins were visited and sketched by Austin Cooper (1759–1830). In 1955 the site was purchased by the

Holy Faith Sisters The Sisters of the Holy Faith is a Catholic religious congregation, originally for the care of Catholic orphans. It now works broadly in the areas of education and faith development. The congregation is part of the Vincentian family. History I ...

, who established St. Wolstan's Holy Faith Convent School. The school has since moved site but retains the name of

St Wolstan's Community School St. Wolstan's Community School is an all-female community school in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. It's under the trusteeship of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, the Holy Faith Sisters and Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board ...

. It was partially excavated in 2002 as part of an archeological assessment, but nothing of significance was found.

Remains

The remains consist of two gateways, a four-storey tower, and two fragments.

References

{{Authority control Augustinian monasteries in the Republic of Ireland Religion in County Kildare Archaeological sites in County Kildare 1200s establishments in Ireland 1202 establishments in Europe Buildings and structures completed in 1202 Christian monasteries established in the 1200s