Kilbennan Monastic Site

On the west side of the River Clare, nearly four kilometres north-west of Tuam, Kilbennan marks the monastery founded in the fifth century by St Benen, a disciple of St Patrick; the 17th-century writer John Colgan says Patrick built the first church here inside a fort belonging to Lugni, whom he had baptised. St Jarlath studied here in the sixth century, and the annals record Kilbennan burned in 1114. The round tower, of finely built limestone, still stands sixteen and a half metres at its highest point, with a sandstone doorway four and a half metres off the ground, though its top has fallen. Beside it stand the two gables of a church built by the Franciscans about 1428, the east gable with a blocked twin-light ogee window and a burial vault against it. A holy well lies to the north-west. Reviewers find it a peaceful place, at its best at sunrise or sunset; the graveyard is still in use.