Religious house

On roadside on NE outskirts of Caltra village. Probably the site of the friary of 'Caltra' or 'Kaltraghne-Pallice', a house of Carmelite friars founded by the Berminghams, barons of Athenry, c. 1320. Apparently dissolved by 1589 but listed, c. 1737, as one of the convents which had been restored (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 288). Archdall (quoted in O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 241) records that is was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. According to OS Letters (ibid., 240-41), 'there was a nunnery ... at Caltra village ... where the parish chapel is now. The wall of the chapel attached to which lies the old burying ground of Caltra, belonged ... originally to the nunnery, which was called Mainisteair na Cealtraighe'. This is probably the site named but not clearly marked on 1st ed. of OS 6-inch map as 'Grave Yard', alongside which the words 'RC Chapel' and 'Vault' also appear. The site is now occupied by a modern RC church (built 1938-9) and graveyard, and no visible surface trace survives. See also GA060-026001- and GA060-129----. A number of architectural fragments, including pieces of tracery and a window-head from an ogee window, have been recorded from the graveyard (GA060-027----): these undoubtedly came from the friary (pers. comm. M. Mannion). (Nolan 1901b, 123) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In this instance the entry has been revised in light of recent research. Date of upload: 25 June 2013

The Carmelite friary in Caltra was founded around 1320 by the Berminghams, barons of Athenry; it is dedicated to the Carmelite order and represents an important medieval religious establishment in the region, apparently dissolved like other Irish monastic houses during the Reformation.