Cong Abbey was founded in 1106 as an Augustinian abbey by
Turlough O' Connor (Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobar). The abbey
was built on the site of an earlier monastery (Cunga Feichin)
founded by St. Feichin in 623. Cong Abbey was an educational
center and at one time housed 3000 students. The last high king
of Ireland stayed here until his death in 1198. His body was later
exhumed and reinterred with his father, Turlough O' Connor.

Along with the other abbeys in Ireland, it was decommissioned
in 1542, by Henry VIII and fell into ruin. These ruins would
scarcely have held together to the present day, had it not been
Sir B. L. Guinness who, in the 1850?s restored several of the
dilapidations, cleared out much of the rubbish which had
accumulated within and around them, and rendered the burial
ground sufficiently decent for the interment of Christian people.