Abbey (in ruins)

Near seashore in NE corner of a graveyard which also contains the modern parish church. Much-rebuilt remains of a post-medieval church (ENE-WSW; L 11.5m, Wth 5.1m) dedicated to St Enda. There is a doorway in N wall and a robbed window in E gable. A second doorway in W gable leads to a later annexe (L 5.5m, Wth 5m) with an internal division; possibly the priest's house. A well-preserved, but sealed, 18th-C mortuary chapel (WSW-ENE; L 8.5m, Wth 5.5m ext.) stands on a rise at S end of graveyard. This graveyard may occupy the site of the medieval hospital/leper house from which An Spidéal takes its name. (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 3, 167-72; Killanin 1947, 131; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 355) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). Date of upload: 05 August 2010