Turlough Round Tower — Attraction in County Mayo

Turlough Tower was extensively repaired in the 19th century and, from what I remember, is supposed to be almost 80 feet tall (about 25 meters).

The tower is attached to a church and cemetery making it an interesting site ripe for fertile imagination. There is a second church nearby in Gortnafolla (field of blood) that still serves as a church for the National Church. It would be an unusual move for the Church of Ireland to build a new structure so close to an available intact church building. There is a case to be made for this building continuing as a church of the Catholic Church well beyond the English reformation.

The church incorporates a crucifixion plaque dated 1625. This plaque hints that Catholic worship was continual here and may have only ceased when the Cromwellians planted Connacht in the 1640s. The cemetery is definitely Catholic.

Despite the claims that it was home to a monastic community there is no mention of Turlough in Ware or in any of the inquisitions and surveys that took place in the 17th century. Turlough is notable as a solid structure, it was likely a parish church and is not claimed by any of the religious orders who were present in Connacht. Not every chapel is a monastery even if it has a clogteach (round tower).

The clogteach itself is one of the finest examples in Ireland. It is quite wide at the base and looks consequently stout and stocky. The roof, which is admittedly a repair job, is blunt and for those who mix faith with Freud - happy days.

The more likely intention of the tower was as a focal point that could be seen by people travelling towards the Reek, Croagh Patrick. These towers were all built by the settlers and not by the Gael. They use the construction methods and styles of the Anglo-Normans but have become an icon of...

A friend and I traveled to Ireland years ago. We didn’t plan our trip, so we randomly spent a night in Castlebar. The next day we called a taxi, and the driver asked us if we wanted to see something cool. We said yes, and that saint of a man SHUT OFF his meter, and drove us to the Turlough Round Tower. Then he patiently sat by his car while we explored the grounds. That experience will always live in my mind, and make me dream of going...

The round tower was part of a medieval Monastery , no longer visible on site . The low round tower built between 900 / 1200 was partly restored in the 19th cent . The original doorway is quite low to the ground and has been blocked up with masonry. The Church which incorporates part of an earlier structure that of a window and a religious plaque from 1625 is an 18th cent building. Now in a...