Religious house - Augustinian canons

The National Monuments Service's description

Part of the monastic complex at Clonfert, this house of Augustinian Canons stood c. 160m to the ESE of 'St Brendan's Cathedral (GA101-017001-). Traditionally associated with St Mary de Portu Pero, it was possibly founded by Turlough O’Connor sometime between 1140-80 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 164-5). By the mid-19th century the OS Letters (1927, Vol. 2, 108) recorded that the 'monastery' had all but disappeared apart from 'a small fragment of one wall 12 feet [3.6m] high, 7 [2.1m] broad, and three (3) [0.9m] feet thick'. All that now survives is a series of earthworks comprising two rectangular enclosures. The N enclosure (42.2m E-W; N-S 36m) is defined along its S and W sides by a bank (Wth 3.5m; H 0.2m), and along the E side by a scarp. An E-W running road cuts through its N limits. In the SE corner of the interior a rectangular structure (12m N-S; 8.5m E-W) is defined by grassed-over foundations along the N, E and W sides while a large mound of densely overgrown rubble (D 6.8m) forms its S side.
Abutting the S side of the enclosure is the second larger enclosure (55m E-W; 32m N-S). It is defined along the E, S and W sides by a scarp. The E side is very irregular in outline. According to local information, some ‘graveslabs’ were found in the SE sector of the interior but no visible surface trace of them survives; they may be overgrown.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 16 January 2020

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

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