Burrishoole Friary

On a low elevation on the shores of a sheltered tidal inlet which opens off the NE end of Clew Bay, and merges at N with a narrow channel connecting with the S end of Furnace Lough. Burrishoole castle (MA067-013001-) is 125m to N.

Burrishoole Abbey, a well built, compact 15th-century Dominican priory dedicated to St. Mary, is a National Monument in state guardianship (no. 235). It is located within the ancient territory of Umhall, which at the time the priory was built was a nexus of rivalries, alliances and intermarriage within and between the O’Malleys, a Gaelic clan, and the Bourkes, descendants of the Anglo-Norman de Burgos.

The priory was founded for the mendicant order of the Dominicans in 1469 by Richard Bourke of Turlough, known as Risteard an Cuarscidh (Richard of the Curved Shield). He was elected the Mac William Íochtar, chief of the Mayo Bourkes in 1460, but having established the priory, he resigned his lordship, took the habit and joined the community at Burrishoole, dying there four years later in 1473 (Gwynne and Hadcock 1970, 222).

Initially, the establishment of the priory proved controversial as the Archbishop of Tuam, who granted permission for the foundation, had neglected to obtain the necessary papal approval, thus exposing the friars to the threat of excommunication. This distressing situation was finally resolved in 1486 when Pope Innocent VIII issued a Papal Bull absolving the friars, regularising the status of the priory and authorising the construction of a church, steeple and bell, as well as dormitories, cloisters, cemetery and refectory.

The priory continued to enjoy generous patronage. The de Burgo O’Malley chalice, a very fine gilt silver chalice now in the National Museum, is associated with Burrishoole. It has an inscription on its base which dates it to 1494 and indicates that it was commissioned by Thomas de Burgo, grandson of Richard Bourke, and his wife Grania Ni Malle (O’Malley).

As was the case for other Irish monasteries, especially those in remoter locations, the protection of local lords allowed the friars to remain at the priory for several decades following the Dissolution of the Monasteries initiated in the mid 1530’s by Henry VIII. However by 1580 the priory was in the hands of Sir Nicholas Malby, Governor of Connacht, who wrote a vivid evaluation of its assets: ‘an abbey standing very pleasant upon a riverside, within three miles of the sea, where a ship of five hundred tons may lie at low tide. It hath a goodly and large lough on the upper part of the river, full of great timber, grey marble, and many other commodities of all sides, not without great store of good ground, both arable land and pasture. Specially it hath a very plentiful iron mine and abundance of wood every way. Towards the sea coast there lieth islands rich and plentiful in all commodities; there cometh hither every year about fifty English ships for fishing. They have been before this time compelled to pay a great tribute to the O’Malleys. It is accounted one of the best fishing places in Ireland for salmon, herring and all kinds of sea fish.’ (cited in Knox 1908, 108).

This helps explain why Malby established a military base at the priory, fortifying and garrisoning the buildings. In succeeding years the fortunes of the friars became increasingly precarious. In 1606 James I gave the abbey and its lands to John Kinge of Dublin, who sold it on immediately to Michael Cormick of Innishmayne. In 1653 the priory was occupied by Cromwellian troops. Throughout the 17th century, a few Dominican friars continued to live and work in the locality. By the 18th century the abbey was in ruins, although it remained in use as a graveyard (MA067-014002-) and as a focus for religious devotion.

The ruins consist of a nave and chancel church, a crossing tower/belfry, a large chapel extending S from the E end of the nave, and fragmentary remains of the cloister and the domestic ranges to the N of the church. The buildings are all 15th century in date, but show evidence of successive construction phases. An incremental approach to construction was not uncommon, particularly in mendicant foundations, where funds may have been insufficient to complete the build in a single operation. Here, the nave and chancel church was erected first; the S chapel, the cloister and domestic buildings were added slightly later, though the time-lag was probably short, as the tracery window in the chapel is stylistically identical to the E window in the chancel; and in the final phase, the tower was inserted at the junction of the nave and chancel, partly obstructing the E archway into the S chapel. The buildings are of roughly coursed limestone blocks and rubble masonry, with dressed quoin stones. The church walls stand more or less to original height, and remnants of plaster still adhere to the walls in parts.

The main entrance to the church is in the W gable of the nave. The doorway has a chamfered cutstone surround with a pointed arch, splaying inwardly to a round-headed arch. There is a single-light window above, and a stoup on a free-standing octagonal pillar (H 0.92m) at the S side of the doorway. The nave (14m E–W; 6.10m N–S. Fig. 3) has two other doorways, one, now blocked up, towards the W end of the S wall with a stoup within a conical corbel to the E of it, and the other, a pointed arched doorway in the N wall, giving access to the cloister garth.

Two pointed arches in the S wall of the nave open into the S chapel or transept (c. 10.5m N–S; 6.55m E–W), the E arch slightly obscured by the later tower. The two arches are reinforced by internal ribs and rest on circular pillars, the central one with a moulded capital. The chapel is lit by a three-light pointed arch switchline tracery window with pointed and chamfered external hood-moulding. Recessed into the wall to E of the window are a square aumbry and a piscina niche with a chamfered pointed arch. The latter were associated with the southern of two altar recesses in the E wall of the chapel, each recess with twin ogee-headed lights embellished externally with projecting square hood-moulding with concave spandrels. The N recess retains its stone-built altar (L 1.86m; Wth 0.64m; H 0.95m). A 17th-century burial monument (MA067-014005-) now occupies the S altar recess. Two recessed gunloops at the NW end of the W wall of the chapel are a legacy of the garrisoning of the priory in the late 16th/early 17th centuries. High on the exterior face of the E wall of chapel a neat row of gutter stones can be seen.

The stocky rectangular tower (ext. 6.10m N–S; 4.40m E–W) divides the nave from the chancel. It has a barrel vault, with pointed E and W arches which have central ribs with plain stops. Two holes, through which the bell ropes were threaded, are visible in the vault. To the N, the vault rests on a simple rounded arch. The S wall of the tower has a passage providing access to the S chapel, and also incorporates spiral stairs leading to the upper storeys, which are lit by simple rectangular opes. At ground floor level in the N wall of the tower, there is a finely carved double ogee-headed window; externally the cusps have multiple receding mouldings continuing into the jambs and mullion, with a similar pattern replicated in the projecting square hood-moulding which has squared stops and concave spandrels.

At the base of the NE pier beneath the tower vault, there are three corbels resting on straight, rectangular jambs, remnants of a small table altar, and a similar feature is visible at the base of the W wall of the tower, facing the nave. Four corbels projecting from high on the W wall of the tower, facing the nave, may have supported the beam that held the rood, above a rood screen integrated within the tower arch. On the E face of the tower, the imprint of the original steep-pitched chancel roof is still clearly visible.

The chancel (8.90m E–W; 6.10m N–S. Fig. 13) is dominated by the restrained elegance of its t