Portglenone Abbey

[citation needed] The monks bought Portglenone House, a country mansion built c. 1810 by the Church of Ireland Bishop Dr. Alexander who demolished the local castle.

[citation needed] History records that Sir Roger Casement often stayed in the house in the early years of the 20th century.

[citation needed] Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey was the first enclosed monastery of men to be established in Northern Ireland since the Reformation.

[citation needed] The monastery belongs to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (OCSO), also known as Trappists, who follow the Rule of St Benedict, but emphasise some of the more austere and penitential aspects of the Rule such as strict silence, abstention from meat, early rising and physical work.

To establish continuity with the Order's past, stones from some of the pre-Reformation Irish Cistercian abbeys were incorporated in the church and cloisters.