Kilmacduagh Monastic Site

Kilmacduagh, five kilometres south-west of Gort on the edge of the Burren, was founded in the seventh century: one story tells how St Meadoc, guided by an angel, healed Guaire, King of Connacht, who built the monastery in his honour, another how Colmán Mac Duagh founded it where his belt fell to the ground. In the twelfth century it became the seat of a diocese, and it was long associated with the O'Heynes and the O'Shaughnessys. The seven-storey round tower is the site's most impressive feature, 34.3 metres high and, like the tower of Pisa, leaning significantly; the OPW restored it in 1878 and 1971. Around it stand the multi-period cathedral, whose west gable is eleventh century, St John's Church, the abbot's house, O'Heyne's Church of the Augustinian canons, Templemurry with its carved cross-slab, and St Mary's Church across the road. Free, unstaffed and open-air, the site is surrounded by a working cemetery and grazing cattle, and some interiors are kept locked; park by the roadside gate below the tower.