Burrishoole Abbey
Burrishoole Abbey is a historical landmark in Newport, Co. Mayo only a 4 minutes drive from Riverside House Bed & Breakfast.
Today the abbey is all but ruins however, what remains is the church and the cloisters of the convent.
The oldest inscribed monument within the Abbey is the O’Kelly altar tomb with and inscription in Latin and gives the date of 1623.
History
In the 14th and 15th century Burrishoole was a lively port situated alongside the old town with trade exceeding that of Galway Bay. Clew Bay was even listed on the Italian maps at the time.
Burrishoole Abbey was founded in 1469 by Richard (Burke) de Burgo.
Richard was known as Risteard an Cuarscidh (Richard of the curved shield). He was Chief of the Burkes of Turlough and Lord Mac William Oughter.
After giving the Dominican friars land for the construction of the abbey Richard resigned his Lordship taking the habit of the order and dying there just 4 years later in 1473.
Almost all the friaries and abbeys across Ireland were suppressed in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th Century, not many were rebuilt or reconstructed and often moved on to new lands.
Today these new lands are called Newport … ‘the new port’.
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