About a mile north of Ballylongford village, on the east bank of Ballylongford Creek, stand the ruins of Lislaughtin Abbey – one of the most historically layered sites in north Kerry, and one with a dark episode at its heart that has never quite been forgotten.

The abbey was founded in 1470 by John O’Connor Kerry, Lord of Iraghticonnor, for the Observant Franciscans. Pope Sixtus IV – himself a Franciscan – granted formal licence for the friary in 1477. The site is believed to stand on the grounds of an even earlier church dedicated to Saint Lachtin, who brought Christianity to this part of Kerry in the seventh century. A silver processional cross commissioned here in 1479 is now held in the National Museum of Ireland.
By 1580, the abbey’s days as a functioning friary were coming to a violent end. Elizabethan forces moved through the area following the siege of nearby Carrigafoyle Castle. Most of the friars fled. Three elderly men who remained – sheltering at the high altar – were clubbed to death where they knelt.

The Franciscans returned briefly in 1629 before the Cromwellian wars ended that chapter for good. What remains today are the unroofed church, a collapsed tower, and the shell of the refectory and dormitory building.
After dark, visitors to the site have reported hearing unexplained moaning across the grounds and seeing a mist that seems to have no natural cause.