2Investigate the contribution of Christianity to culture and society
The monastery buildings
1. What features show that this was a very important monastery? 2. Do you agree that the monastery was also a large town? Explain your answers.
There were other large monasteries besides Clonmacnoise. These included Clonard, Kells, Cork, Clonfert, Glendalough and Armagh which were built along important routes. These were monastic towns, like Clonmacnoise, with many lay people living around the monastery. These were important centres of economic activity. There were also small, remote (out of the way) monasteries built on islands off the west coast of Ireland. The most famous of these is Skellig Michael, off the coast of Co. Kerry, where the monks lived in small stone beehive huts beside a small stone church.
