2025:438 - Kilmacduagh, Galway

Monitoring of the repair of a collapsed section of the boundary wall of the graveyard (RMP No. GA128-034017) at Kilmacduagh in County Galway, took place on 22 May 2025. The works were carried under Ministerial Consent (C001372). The writer visited the site in advance of, during and following completion of the works.

Kilmacduagh is located at the edge of the Burren, just over 4km south-west of the town of Gort. It is a National Monument (No. 51) and is comprised of an Augustinian abbey (RMP No. GA128-034001), a hall house (RMP No. GA128-034002), three churches (RMP Nos. GA128-034003, GA128-034009 and GA128-034014), a cathedral (RMP No. GA128-034004), a chapel (RMP No. GA128-034005), a leacht (RMP No. GA128-034006), two holy trees/bushes (RMP Nos. GA128007 and GA128-034016), a round tower (RMP No. GA128-034008), a holy well (RMP No. GA128-034010), two buildings (RMP Nos. GA128-034011 and GA128-034012), an earthwork (RMP No. GA128-034013), an ecclesiastical enclosure (RMP No. GA128-034015) and the graveyard (RMP No. GA128-034-017).

Following on from the repair of a collapsed section of the southern graveyard boundary wall in 2024, also carried out under Ministerial Consent No. C001372, the works concerned a further collapsed section of the southern boundary wall, at its western end. The section measured 1.4m long and 0.6m wide at its base. The repairs were carried out by a qualified stone mason and only the collapsed stone was used in the repair. The collapse, which lay on either side of the wall, was thoroughly inspected for any architectural fragments, cut or dressed stone. None were in evidence. Leamix was visible in the collapsed section, suggesting it had been repaired in recent times. The removal of the collapse revealed two extant courses at the base of the wall and a 0.3m-wide stile, which had been blocked up, at the southern end of the western boundary wall. No artefacts were found during the works. Nothing of archaeological significance was in evidence.