HORE-ABBEY, a parish, in the barony of MIDDLETHIRD,
county of TIPPERARY, and province of MUNSTER,
adjoining the city of Cashel, and containing 451
inhabitants. This parish is chiefly distinguished as the
site of a monastery, founded near the cathedral, and
called Hore Abbey and also the Abbey of St. Mary of
the Rock of Cashel. It was originally of the Benedictine
order, but, in 1269, or 1272, the Archbishop David
McCarvill, having dreamed that the monks made an
attempt on his life, violently dispossessed them of their
house and lands, which he gave to a body of Cistertian
monks from the abbey of Mellifont, in the county of
Louth, and at the same time took on him the habit of
that order. It subsisted till the dissolution, when Patrick
Stackboll, the last abbot, surrendered it with all
its possessions, which, in 1561, were granted by Queen
Elizabeth to Sir Henry Radcliffe, Knt.; it was afterwards
granted to James Butler, and in the 42nd of the
same reign was granted to Thomas Sinclair, at the
annual rent of 2s.; it is now, with the greater part of
the parish, the property of the Earl of Mount-Cashel.
The parish comprises 1519 statute acres; the land is of
good quality, and the system of agriculture improved.
The living is a rectory, in the diocese of Cashel, and in
the patronage of the Archbishop: the tithes amount to
£166. 3. 1. There is neither church, glebe-house, nor
glebe. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of
the union or district of Cashel. There is a private school,
in which about 70 children are taught. There are considerable
remains of the abbey church, most of which
is entire, they consist of the nave, choir, and central
tower, the last supported on two lofty arches; the nave
is separated from the aisles by a series of three pointed
arches, of which that of the north side has been levelled;
the choir has an east window of small size and plain
design, and in the side walls are some stalls; a small
low arched apartment, with niches in the walls, appears
to have been a confessional; the vaulting of the tower
is richly groined, and many of the details are of elegant
character.