Thurles - Holy Cross Abbey

4mi/6km south of Thurles, on the right bank of the Suir, is Holy Cross Abbey (13th-15th C; National Monument), a Cistercian house founded in the 12th C. The abbey possessed a fragment of the True Cross which made it a great place of pilgrimage. The church, re-roofed and restored in 1975 as part of European Architectural Heritage Year, has three aisles and two transepts with a massive tower over the crossing. The chancel, transepts and crossing are beautifully vaulted. The choir (15th C.) with its east window and stone sedilia bearing coats of arms is particularly fine. In the north transept, partly preserved, is a wall painting (a feature rare in Ireland) depicting a stag hunting scene in shades of brown, red and green. Between two chapel