Religious house - Franciscan Third Order Regular

The National Monuments Service's description

On a hillock in gently undulating pastureland and occupying the E half of an associated graveyard (GA098-111001-). A nunnery was founded here by St Patrick for his sister St Richella. By 1563 it was occupied by Franciscan monks (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 271). What survives is a multiphase medieval church, in fair condition, consisting of a rectangular nave (21.8m E-W; 6.25m N-S) with a S transept (7.7m N-S; 5.6m E-W). The 1838 and 1933 editions of the OS 6-inch map also show a lateral extension to the N at the E end of the church; it was possibly the sacristy. All that now survives of this is the low foundation line (L 5.7m) of its W wall. Of the church, which is heavily overgrown with ivy, the W gable, the W half of the N wall and most of the S wall survive but the E gable has been levelled and only the foundation line of the E half of the N wall is visible. The S wall is in a much-collapsed state to the E of the transept; all the walls of the latter structure survive; it appears to be a later addition as its E wall is not bonded into the nave. The main surviving architectural features in the nave include a pointed-arch doorway in the W gable with a beautiful font in its S jamb and a round-headed single-light window set off-centre above it, a piscina and two rectangular windows in the S wall, one of which is blocked up. In the transept there is a fine pointed two-light window with a quatrefoil in the S gable and a rectangular window in the E wall; a modern graveslab has been inserted into the lower half of the latter one. Two medieval graveslabs (GA098-111003- and GA098-111004-) are visible within the nave. (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 485-8)

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 19 February 2020

References

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.