Sunday 17 December 2023

Kilmacduagh Monastic Settlement, Gort, Galway

Kilmacduagh Monastic Settlement

The town of Gort in Galway lies roughly in the southwesterly portion of the County and from here you can meander down through the Burren and into County Clare on your travels.

Just outside Gort is a wonderful collection of ancient buildings of which I had known very little and never heard tell of before.

I was quite surprised to come across what in reality turned out to be a substantial and important ancient monastic settlement replete with Ireland's tallest Round Tower.

At the time of my visit I didn't get to fully explore the area nor find out its full history as some of the buildings were closed up.

A monastery was founded here by Saint Colman who was a son of Duagh, hence Kilmacduagh or in English, The Church of the son of Duagh.

The Round Tower leans slightly to one side and there are several small Churches dotted about the site along with some other ecclesiastical buildings.

After the Anglo Norman conquest of Ireland which began c. 1169 the established continental religious orders flourished throughout Ireland and Kilmacduagh became an Abbey of an Agustinian order sometime in the 13th Century.

The scale of the site amply demonstrates the importance it must once have held and it's quite likely it would once have rivaled both Clonmacnoise and Glendalough in significance.

Unfortunately my visit was all too fleeting so although I'm determined to return in the immediate future I would highly recommend to anyone reading this post to mark it as a fantastic site to visit.