Kilconnell Abbey (Cill Chonaill)

Figuring out how to get to the ruins of Kilconnell Abbey took us a bit of contemplation and further consultation at the local pub. Between the buildings and through the fields?  Through the gardens and by the sheep?  That turned out to be the easiest way. A well maintained path took us to the Abbey where we thoroughly examined the seemingly locked gate before realizing we just had to open it!

Located in Kilconnell, a small rural village, in County Galway, the Franciscan Abbey was founded in 1353 by William Bui O'Kelly, Lord of Uí Maine.  It was renovated by his grandson, William Mór O'Kelly in the early fifteenth century.  William Mór died in 1420 and is buried in the friary.  It is a major burial place for the O'Kelly Sept.

Although it lacks a roof (some sources state it was deroofed by Cromwellian soldiers, others that it was abandoned by the Franciscans as vocations fell) it is amazingly intact considering it has been unoccupied for hundreds of years.


As we continue to explore our Kelly heritage, it is exciting to know that is was our ancestors that built some of these wonderful ruins.  As I wandered through this and others, I did think that I probably like them best in this "ruin" form.  With roofs they would have been dark and cold.  Open to the air with sunlight...well daylight anyway.. pouring through they are places of great beauty and wonder.

More Pictures

Read more on the history of Kilconnell

Kilconnell - Monastic Ireland - History, a tour of the site, footprint....wish I had found this site before we visited!
History of Kilcennell Abbey - Schools Collection  - dúchas.ie
The Irish Aesthete - Where there is Darkness Light
Ireland in Ruins
Kilconnell - Wikipedia

Galey Castle

Lying on western shores of Lough Ree, near Knockcroghery, Co. Roscommon, the ruins of Galey castle are just across the road from Galey Caravan Park. But bring your wellies if you want to see the actual ruins.  In this picture it is the dense green just left of center.  





Galey Castle "...was once the stronghold of the O'Kelly clan and was instrumental in the naming of the nearby village of Knockcroghery. The name change of the village occurred in Cromwellian times (17th century) when Sir Charles Coote laid siege to Galey Castle. The garrison resisted and for their defiance were taken to Creggan (The old name for Knockcroghery) and hanged on the hill just north of the village, now commonly known as Hangman's Hill. To mark this, the name of the village was changed to "Cnoc na Crocaire," the Hill of the Hangings, or in english - "Knockcroghery"." Galey Bay Camping

According to historical resources, Galey Castle was built in 1348 by our 17th/18th g.grandpa, William McDonagh Moynach O'Kelly (William Bui O'Kelly / Uilliam Bui Ó Ceallaigh). In 1351 he held a great feast at the castle, inviting all the poets, brehons, bards, harpers, gamesters or common kearógs, and jesters and other of their kind of Ireland.  A month long party resulted in verses extolling William for his bounty. 

This is the translation of the O'Kelly Welcome purported to have been written at the feast. 

A blessed, long living, great, courteous welcome,    
An affectionate, charitable, just, proper, true hearted welcome,    
A welcome and twenty, and I add, hundreds to them,    
Like the surge of the stream is, my welcome to you.  

The website  Ó Ceallaigh - The Noble Clan of Ui Maine gives the translation of Filid Erin Go h-Aoin Teach (The Poets of Ireland to One House Are Coming) a product of the party.

The view from the castle must have been spectacular, it certainly is today!

• More Pictures at Galey Bay