Murrisk Abbey in ruins — Carrowkeel (murrisk By.)

Named ‘Murrisk Abbey’ on the OS 6-inch map, this 15th-century Augustinian friary stands close to the southern shore of Clew Bay, on a S-facing slope at the foot of Croagh Patrick. It is a National Monument in State ownership (no. 196). The friary was established in 1456, when Hugh O’Malley, a friar from the Observant Augustinian friary (SL) in Banada, Co. Sligo, received papal permission to build a friary at ‘the place called Leithearmursge [Murrisk] …for the purpose of building a house of the said order with church, cloister, bell-tower, bell, refectory, dorter [dormitory] and other necessary offices…’ (Cal. Papal Letters). The land was granted by ‘Thady Omaylly [O’Malley]…chief of his sept, for the welfare of his soul and the souls of his progenitors..’ (Cal. Papal Letters). This is likely to have been Tadhg mac Diarmaid Ó Máille (d. 1467), who ruled Umaill at the time, and to whom Hugh O’Malley was probably related (Martin 1956, 378). The O’Malleys (Uí Mháille), a seafaring family, were Lords of Umaill, controlling most of what is now the barony of Murrisk. A 1656 document states that the founder of the friary was Lady Maeve O’Connor, wife of Diarmuid Bacach O’Malley, the latter probably an uncle of Thady O’Malley (McDermott 2008, 25). As often with the mendicant orders, it is likely that several benefactors were involved in the foundation and in funding the various phases of building. In the papal permission, the reason given for the foundation of the friary is that ‘the place is far remote from cities, towns and castles, etc., and that the inhabitants of those parts have not hitherto been instructed in the faith…’. This suggesting that the parish was lacking in suitable pastoral care. The friary was dedicated to St Patrick, and it is believed that relics of the saint, the shrine of St Patrick’s tooth (Fiacail Phadraig), now in the National Museum of Ireland, and St Patrick’s Black Bell, acquired by the Royal Irish Academy, were at one time kept in the church (McDermott 2008, 29). It became the starting point for pilgrims undertaking the traditional devotional climb to the summit of Croagh Patrick. Following the Dissolution of the monasteries, a report in 1574 to Queen Elisabeth’s Lord Deputy mentions that Moyrishe [Murrisk] was ‘possessed either by friars or rebels, so as Her Majesty hath no commodity in the same.’, and in 1578 the property was granted to James Garvey, brother of John Garvey, Protestant arch bishop of Armagh (O’Flanagan and O’Connell 1986, 129-131). It appears, however, that the friars were able to stay on up to the 18th-century, thanks to the remoteness of the site and the protection of powerful local patrons. This is evidenced by two chalices made for the monastery in the 17th-century: the Viscount Mayo Chalice of 1635 was commissioned by Maeve/Maud O’Conor in memory of her late husband Theobald Burke (d. 1629), and the 1648 Murrisk Chalice was commissioned by Augustinian friar, John de Burgh, and made in Galway by Richard Joyce. The extant remains are L-shaped in plan, consisting of an undifferentiated nave and chancel church, with a collapsed bell tower at its W end, and one range of domestic buildings extending N from the E end of the church. The majority of the walls still stand to original roof level, and are constructed of roughly coursed dressed limestone blocks. The stones in the N wall of the church are more carefully cut and dressed than those in the S wall of the church and in the E range. The stones may have been prepared by different teams of masons, perhaps because of periodic lulls in the construction of the friary, not unusual in the context of mendicant construction, which relied on lay donations. The position of the tower (int. 6.10m N–S; 1.95m E–W) at the W end of the church is unusual in a mendicant context, as a central location between the nave and the chancel is the norm. All that remains of the tower is the E wall with its large cut-stone arch, sections of the the rib vault springing from corbels at the N and S end of that wall, and remnants of the S and W walls. There was a single light in the S wall, but only the lower section of the internal splay survives. The large arch originally opened into the nave; it is now blocked up, with a small, flat-headed doorway inserted into the infilling masonry. While the main entrance to the nave was probably originally through the tower, there is also a pointed doorway, with chamfered arch and jambs, at the W end of the S wall of the nave, which gives direct access from outside. The church (int. 24.9m E−W; 6.15m) now has no clear structural division between the nave and chancel. A low step may mark the division, but could also be associated with the rise of the ground level due to later burial use. Three windows towards the E end of the nave, two in the S wall and one in the N wall, may mark the location of a timber rood screen, which probably originally divided the nave and chancel (Leask 1943, 139): In the S wall are a double ogee-headed light, placed low in the wall, and c. 0.50m to the E a single ogee-headed light; on the external face both are cusped, with concave spandrels and square hood mouldings; directly opposite in the N wall is another single ogee-headed light. The chancel has two double-light windows, now missing the central mullions, at the E end of the S wall. They are round-headed lights, with a circular opening above; externally, both have pointed hood-mouldings with pyramidal stops. There is a small carved stone head on the external wall face to the W of these windows. The E gable has a tall, elegant five-light window, with graceful switchline tracery and trefoil heads, a pointed, chamfered hood-moulding, and mullions chamfered on all sides; Leask (1943, 140) regarded it as ‘perhaps the best window of its type in the west of Ireland’. There is carved stone head on the external wall face on the S side of this window. The high altar still stands underneath the E window against the wall. In the S wall of the chancel are a piscina recess and a rectangular niche, perhaps where the sedilia used to be. There are a number of 19th-century wall monuments and memorial inscriptions on the walls. In the N wall a pointed doorway, with chamfered arch and jambs leads into the E range. To its W side is a small stoup within an ogee-headed recess. The doorway opens into a small vestibule that gives access at N to the sacristy, at E to a spiral staircase, lit by a small rectangular window, leading to the dormitory above, and at W to a short passage to the cloister area. The short passage opens through a pointed doorway into the remains of a small porch-like structure (2.15m N–S; 2.55m E–W) abutting the corner of the E range and the church; a pointed doorway, with chamfered jambs, in its N wall, opening into the cloister area. Although a cloister is specified in the original papal permission, there is now no trace of it. Corbels and a string course along the W wall of the E range and the N wall of the church indicate that a covered walkway with a lean-to roof may have existed, perhaps resting on a timber structure rather than a stone arcade. It is also uncertain whether N and W ranges ever existed; traces of walling off the N end of the W wall of the E range suggest there may have been a N range. In the ground floor of the extant E range, the sacristy consists of a rectangular barrel-vaulted room (c. 6.25 m E–W; c. 2.4m). It has a single round-headed light in the E wall. Immediately to N of the sacristy is another vaulted room (c. 6. 25m E–W; c. 6m N–S), probably the chapter room, entered through a large pointed doorway with chamfered arch and jambs in the W wall, and lit by a double-light, with trefoil heads and an unadorned mullion, in the E wall. The room (6.15m E–W; 5.20m N–S) to the N of the chapter room was probably also vaulted, but the ceiling is gone, and the interior is infilled to the level of the sill of the W wall single light. The upper floor