In 1183 the north and eastern part of Castlemagner was overrun by Norman invaders named Barry. The eastern end was assigned to William Magner and the Northern end to the ‘Knights Templar’. These were a military order of lay monks drawn from the high ranking Norman ruling families. Those interested in understanding the true nature of this order of military monks can start their search here.
This order constructed a monastery in the present townland of Subulter overlooking the Marybrook bridge on the land occupied by the Taylor family. A manor farm to support this monastery was developed on the site of the present Marybrook House amounting to 600 acres and occupied parts of the present townlands of Subulter, Knocknanuss and Lackaleigh. A site in the southern end of Lackaleigh was set aside for stabling horses for farm work and war horses for the young knights. This site is occupied by the present Assolas house.
In 1300 MacCarthy Mor regained some of the Norman land which included Subulter. As a result, the monastery was vacated and unoccupied until 1307 (incidentally, this is when Philip the Fair, King of France, and Pope Clement V attempted to ‘liquidate’ the Knights Templars in Europe – this lead to the formation of the Freemasons in Scotland). However, by this time the order of lay monks was suppressed by Henry III thus bringing an end to this era.
Following this, the lands and monastery were re-assigned by the then King to the Knights Hospitaller of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (the name Subulter being derived from this). The order ran a recuperation and rest centre for knights wounded in the crusades. By 1350 the monastery was again in disuse and reverted to the Norman Bishop of Cloyne. (It was standard practice at the time that unassigned Crown land would revert to the local bishop.)
In 1542 all land owned by the Roman Church was confiscated by the Crown (Henry VIII). The 600 acre estate was sold by the crown to Lord Barry Mor who in turn sold it to the O’Callaghans of Clonmeen. The O’Callaghans remained the owners of the estate until the Cromwellian confiscations of 1657.
From this point onwards, the estate and monastery site had an assortment of Anglo-Irish owners until the birth of the Irish Free State in 1921 when the Lucey family became the legal owners.
All that remains of the monastery today is a well in the present Taylor farmyard which is 100 feet deep and 6 feet in diameter. The well is stone lined well along its entire depth, a feature common to all Knight’s Templar monasteries.