What it is
The friars' black cloaks gave the abbey its name. It was suppressed in 1543, used as a courthouse, ruined by Cromwell and only fully restored as a church in the nineteenth century. Inside are a rare fourteenth-century alabaster carving of the Trinity, medieval tomb slabs and the five-light Rosary Window of 1892, the largest of its kind in Ireland.
It is a working church: visit quietly and avoid Mass times.
Getting there by bus
The abbey is on Abbey Street off Parliament Street, a two-minute walk from Rothe House and about 12 minutes from the castle. Buses along Dean Street and Parliament Street stop nearby (Dean Street stop).
Black Freren Gate beside it is the last surviving gate of the city walls.
