Hospital

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located 55m NE of Moyne Franciscan friary (MA022-024001-), towards the base of a steep S-facing slope, 15m N of the E−W stream flowing from the friary into Killala bay to E. The shoreline is 25m to E.
Indicated simply as ‘Ruin’ on the 1838 and 1929 OS 6-inch maps, located in the NW corner of a subrectangular enclosure (MA022-024006-), this building may have been built in the 15th or 16th century to serve as a hospital or infirmary for the friary. The stonework is plain and without definitively datable architectural features, but an infirmary located close to the shore is mentioned by the Franciscan historian Donatus Mooney in his early 17th-century account of Moyne; he described how at high tide large ships were able to come up as far as the infirmary (Mooney 1958-59, 47). O’ Hara (1898, 262) also mentions an infirmary with an enclosure along the course of the stream to E of the friary, and notes that it was ‘now known as the kennel, as it seems it was used as such by the subsequent owner of the place.’
The remains are comprised of a roofless two-storey rectangular building (int. c. 7.50m E–W; 3.80m N–S) of roughly coursed limestone rubble masonry, with a walled enclosure (MA022-024006-) or courtyard to E and S. The W gable (H c. 3m) and the N (H c. 2m) and S walls are intact, but the E gable (ext. H c. 1.4m) has largely collapsed. The doorway (Wth 1m) is located towards the W end of the S wall; the top of the door and a portion of the wall directly above it have collapsed. There is a small rectangular window immediately to W of the door, at the W end of that wall. Immediately inside the doorway are what appear to be the foundations of two short walls (E wall: L c. 1.20m, N wall: L. c. 1.10m) set at right angles, possibly the remnants of a small internal entrance lobby or vestibule. There is a small semi-circular fireplace (Wth 0.70m; D 0.40m) in the W gable at ground floor level, and a possible cupboard recess at the W end of the N wall. Remnants of internal plasterwork can still be seen. In the N wall a slight rebate is visible, as well as sockets, which supported timber flooring for the upper storey. In the surviving portion of the E gable there are slight remnants of an inwardly splayed window (ext. Wth c. 0.50m) at ground floor level; the collapse of the upper section of this wall suggests there may have been another window at first floor level, which is likely as no windows are evident in the other walls. At the base of the S wall, foundations built to level up the ground are visible. The wall of an enclosure (MA022-024006-) joins the SW angle of the building. The walls are thickly overgrown with ivy, and elder tree is growing in the interior of the building.

Compiled by: Anne-Julie Lafaye

Date of upload: 15 June 2020

References

O’Hara, J. 1898 Rosserk and Moyne, Co. Mayo. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 28, 258-263.

Mooney, C. 1958-59 The Franciscans in County Mayo. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 28, 42-69.