Gowlaun Catholic Chapel

Detached two-bay single-storey Catholic chapel, extant 1838, on a T-shaped plan originally thatched comprising single-bay single-storey nave opening into single-bay (single-bay deep) single-storey transepts centred on chancel to crossing (east) with single-bay three-stage tower (south) on a square plan. "Improved", 1871-2, producing present composition. Dismantled, 1896-7. Disused, 1901. In ruins, 1915. Roof now missing, coping to gables now missing retaining drag edged tooled cut-limestone monolithic kneelers, and no rainwater goods surviving on squared limestone eaves. Coursed rubble stone battered walls retaining fine roughcast surface finish. Pointed-arch window openings with no fittings surviving. Paired lancet window openings to crossing (east) with no fittings surviving. Interior in ruins. Set in unkempt grounds on a slightly elevated site.

The shell of a chapel regarded as an important component of the early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, suggested by such attributes as the traditional T-shaped plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; and the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme: meanwhile, aspects of the composition, in particular the eye-catching tower, clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the church in the later nineteenth century. Although reduced to ruins following a prolonged period of neglect, the congregation having removed to the nearby Catholic Church of the Holy Family (1896-7), Cloonlaur (see 31309504), the elementary form and massing survive intact, thus upholding much of the character of a chapel making a picturesque visual statement in the foothills of the Mweel Rea Mountains.