Malachy of Armagh first visited the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux, near Dijon in Burgundy in 1140. He was so impressed by the way of life that Malachy sent some Irish monks to France to learn first hand the Cistercian way of life. The first Cistercian monastery was then founded in Ireland in 1142 at Mellifont in the Boyne Valley. In total forty-one Cistercian monasteries were built in Ireland during the middle ages, though not all took their mother house from Mellifont or France. Some like Inch and Grey Abbey had links to the North of England.