The former Benedictine abbey at Hore was given to the Cistercians by Archbishop David Mac Cerbaill (in 1270), who later entered the monastery, and was buried there in 1289.

This is evident in the objection by the thirty-eight local brewers to the levy of two flagons out of every brewing and in the murder of two monks who were visiting the town.

He was by all accounts an exceptionally quarrelsome man, who in his long career clashed with the Dean of Cashel, his fellow bishops and the Dublin administration.

Hore Abbey is distinctive among Irish Cistercian monasteries in that the cloister lies to the north.

The siting of the Abbey, with the Rock of Cashel close by to the north, may explain this departure from the usual arrangement.