The site is on a headland beside the village.
Remains: church, tower, transept and aisle are complete; large sections of the friary still stand; including parts of the cloister arcade.
Many people associate Timoleague friary with the Irish poem by Seán Ó Coileáin ‘Oidhche dham go doiligh, dubhach…’, which is a translation from the English peom by Fr. Matthew Horgan. The friary of Tigh-mo-Laghi dates back to about 1307. It owes its origins to the combined efforts of Donal Glas MacCarthy and William de Barry. The building underwent continuous expansion, e.g. the tower was added about 1510. It was one of the first Franciscan communities to adopt the Observant reform in 1460-1.
Protected by Cormac McCarthy Reagh, the friars were able to remain in residence right up to Cromwellian period. They had, of course, to flee several times when the friary itself was plundered, the last occasion being as late as 1642. After the Restoration, they emerged from their place of hiding at Clogagh. Although the community had dispersed by the middle of the eighteenth century, individual friars continued to work in the area. The last of these was Fr. Bonaventure Tobin, who died about 1822.
