The exhibition centre outlines the history of Mount Melleray in word and picture, through a series of panels.These begin with the arrival of the Cistercians in Ireland through to the foundation of daughter houses in Co. Antrim and in New Zealand.

Also on display in the exhibition centre are a number of Ogham stones brought to Mount Melleray in 1910 by Canon P Power, onetime professor of archaeology in University College Cork. Ogham stones were memorials erected to record the passing of some noted person in ancient Ireland.