The larger monastic establishments had more than one cloister; there was usually a second connected with the infirmary, of which there are examples at Westminster Abbey and at Canterbury; and sometimes one giving access to the kitchen and other domestic offices.
The cloister was not an appendage of monastic houses exclusively. It was also attached to colleges of secular canons, as at the cathedrals of Lincoln, Salisbury, Wells, Hereford and Chichester, and formerly at St Paul’s and Exeter. It is, however, absent at York, Lichfield, Beverley, Ripon, Southwell and Wimborne. A cloister forms an essential part of the colleges of Eton and Winchester, and of New College and Magdalen at Oxford, and was designed by Wolsey at Christ Church. These were used for religious processions and lectures, for ambulatories for the studious at all times, and for places of exercise for the inmates generally in wet weather, as well as in some instances for sepulture.
For the arrangements of the Carthusian cloisters, as well as for some account of those appended to the monasteries of the East, see [Abbey].
(E. V.)
CLONAKILTY, a seaport and market town of Co. Cork, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, at the head of Clonakilty Bay, 33 m. S.W. of Cork on a branch of the Cork, Bandon & South Coast railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 3098. It was brought into prosperity by Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, and was granted a charter in 1613; but was partly demolished on the occasion of a fight between the English and Irish in 1641. It returned two members to the Irish parliament until the union. In the 18th century there was an extensive linen industry. The present trade is centred in brewing, corn-milling, yarn and farm-produce. The harbour-mouth is obstructed by a bar, and there is a pier for large vessels at Ring, a mile below the town. The fisheries are of importance. A ruined church on the island of Inchdorey, and castles on Galley Head, at Dunnycove, and at Dunowen, together with a stone circle, are the principal antiquities in the neighbourhood.
CLONES, a market town of Co. Monaghan, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 64½ m. S.W. by W. from Belfast, and 93½ m. N.W. from Dublin by the Great Northern railway, on which system it is an important junction, the lines from Dublin, from Belfast, from Londonderry and Enniskillen, and from Cavan converging here. Pop. of urban district (1901), 2068. The town has a considerable agricultural trade, and there are corn mills and manufactures of agricultural implements. A former lace-making industry is extinct. The market-place, called the Diamond, occupies the summit of the slight elevation on which the town is situated. Clones was the seat of an abbey founded in the 6th century by St Tighernach (Tierney), to whom the Protestant parish church is dedicated. Remains of the abbey include a nave and tower of the 12th century, and a curious shrine formed out of a great block of red sandstone. Other antiquities are a round tower of rude masonry, 75 ft. high but lacking the cap; a rath, or encampment, and an ancient market cross in the Diamond.
CLONMACNOISE, one of the most noteworthy of the numerous early religious settlements in Ireland, on the river Shannon, in King’s county, 9 m. S. of Athlone. An abbey was founded here by St Kieran in 541, which as a seat of learning gained a European fame, receiving offerings, for example, from Charles the Great, whose companion Alcuin the scholar received part of his education from the great teacher Colcu at Conmacnoise. Several books of annals were compiled here, and the foundation became the seat of a bishopric, but it was plundered and wasted by the English in 1552, and in 1568 the diocese was united with that of Meath. The most remarkable literary monument of Clonmacnoise is the Book of the Dun Cow, written about 1100, still preserved (but in an imperfect form) by the Royal Irish Academy, and containing a large number of romances. It is a copy of a much earlier original, which was written on the skin of a favourite cow of St Kieran, whence the name of the work. The full title of the foundation is the “Seven Churches of Clonmacnoise,” and remains of all these are extant. The Great Church, though rebuilt by a chief named McDermot, in the 14th century, retains earlier remains in a fine west doorway; the other churches are those of Fineen, Conor, St Kieran, Kelly, Melaghlin and Dowling. There are two round towers; O’Rourke’s, lacking the roof, but occupying a commanding situation on rising ground, is dated by Petrie from the early 10th century, and stands 62 ft. in height; and McCarthy’s, attached to Fineen’s church, which is more perfect, but rather shorter, and presents the unusual feature of a doorway level with the ground, instead of several feet above it as is customary. There are three crosses, of which the Great Cross, made of a single stone and 15 ft. in height, is splendidly carved, with tracery and inscriptions. It faces the door of the Great Church, and is of the same date. A large number of inscribed stones dating from the 9th century and after are preserved in the churches. There are further remains of the Castle and Episcopal palace, a fortified building of the 14th century, and of a nunnery of the 12th century. In the neighbourhood are seen striking examples of the glacial phenomenon of eskers, or gravel ridges.