Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Building
Cong South, County Mayo, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Cong South
- County
- Mayo
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Monks fishing ho. (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 53.53982, -9.28889
- SMR number
- MA120-053007-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
This unusual little building, traditionally known as the ‘Monk’s Fishing House, stands on a stone-built platform directly over the Cong river, c. 90m W of Cong Augustinian abbey (MA120-053001-). It is a rectangular, single-storey gable-ended structure (int. c. 3.45m E–W; c. 2.95m N–S) built of mortared stone, now roofless, with a pointed doorway in the E gable wall. There is a small semicircular fireplace in the W gable wall, with a rectangular chimney above. Flanking the N side of the fireplace is a large rectangular window, and there is also a small pointed window in the N wall; both windows overlook the river. In the stone floor a narrow rectangular hole opens onto the river, perhaps to facilitate fishing activities. The exact date of the building is uncertain, but Leask (1941, 117) suggested that it may have served as a watchhouse for the abbey’s fishing weirs. It is a National Monument in State ownership (no. 432).
Attached images:
MA120-053007-_01.JPG viewed from N
MA120-053007-_02.JPG viewed from N
MA120-053007-_03.JPG Doorway in E gable
MA120-053007-_04.JPG Interior: fireplace and window in W gable
Compiled by: Anne-Julie Lafaye and Jane O’Shaughnessy
Date of upload: 1 February 2022
References
Leask, H. 1941 The Augustinian Abbey of St Mary the Virgin, Cong, Co. Mayo. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 19, 107-17.
Nearby in the register
- Castle - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Religious house - Augustinian canonsunder 1 mi
- House - indeterminate dateunder 1 mi
- Inscribed stoneunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.