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One of the most pleasant rides is east of Ennis to Quin Abbey (May-Oct Mon-Fri 10.30am-6pm, Sat & Sun 11.30am-5pm), the area's best-preserved Franciscan friary, founded in 1433. The main church building is graceful, its slender tower rising clear over the high, open archway between chancel and nave and making a distinct outline against the green of the surrounding pastures. Climb up a floor to the first storey and you can look down on the abbey's complete cloister with its arches and buttresses. For all the uplifting beauty of the tower, the abbey seems to have been built on a human scale, to function as a place in which to live and worship rather than to impress and dominate. On the other hand, the massive walls of Knappogue Castle emanate an awesome sense of power. Leave Quin and continue two miles south on the L31 to reach this huge sixteenth-century tower house (April-Oct daily 9.30am-5pm; GBP2.90/?3.68). It was built by the Macnamaras in 1467, but they lost it to Cromwell, who then used it as his HQ - thereby, no doubt, saving it from the major damage he inflicted elsewhere. At the Restoration, the Macnamaras managed to regain ownership of the castle and hung on to it until 1800. It's been beautifully restored, and inside are boldly carved sixteenth-century oak fireplaces and stout oak furniture. At odds with the overall flavour of Knappogue, the nineteenth-century domestic additions are furnished in eighteenth-century style: beautifully appointed with Irish Chippendale furniture and Waterford crystal. The main body of the castle is used for medieval banquets.
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