It is said that there was a secret passage underground between the abbey and Knoppogue Castle, a distance of four miles away. People making a grave in the abbey a short while ago came upon an underground passage leading in the direction of Knoppogue.
It is said that the monks of the Abbey were successful in storing the sacred vessels in Knoppogue by means of the secret passage, during the Cromwellian Wars. A good portion of the Castle of Knoppogue is still intact and habitable and it is the common belief of the people of the neighbourhood that its cellars now covered by a modern mansion contain much that belonged to Quin Abbey long ago.
It was the Mc Namara clan that built Quin Abbey. It is said that a son of the Chief of the Mc Namaras was drowned in a river quite convenient to the spot where the ruins of the Abbey now stand. Prayers were said to St Francis (because it was his feast day) that if the