monuments galway

Dun Aengus is a fantastic example of a stone fort which is thought to be over 2000 years old! It is perched on top of a cliff edge about 300 ft above the Atlantic Ocean.
The fort is said to have been built by Aonghusa who was a chief of the Fir Bolg - so it translates as the 'Fort of Aonghusa'.
The impressive stone fort has three enclosures to defend against the enemy. If you look closely enough at one of the walls you will notice vetical, jagged rocks pertruding at an angle....

This national monument situated 1km south-east of Eoghnacht village is a massive univallate stone ring-fort (restored with terraced rampart and three house sites). North-east of the fort is another national monument, the ancient ecclesiastical site of Kilcholan....

This impressive national monument on the southern side of the island ( 2.5km west of Cill Eanna) stands on the edge of the great cliffs. Its approaches are so well guarded by natural defences and by achevaux-de-frise, that it must have been well-nigh impregnable.

A century ago, Dr John O' Donovan measured the remains of the wall left after many cliff falls since its construction over 2000 years ago, and concluded that it was perhaps the biggest fort on the island at one time, though it...

This national monument is named after Saints Fursa, Conall, Bearchan and Breandan of Birr. It stands near the village of Cowrugh, 1km west of Eochaill, and is a small 15th century building. Outside there is an enclosure called - Leaba an Cheathrair - on which there are four great flagstones, marking the graves of the saints, while to the south of the church is a holy well.

A few fields west are graves marked by plain pillar stones: also in the vicinity is the ruinous Clochan an Phuca,...

This finely decorated but incomplete High Cross is contemporary with the Hiberno-Romanesque arch in St Mary's Cathedral. It was built in the 12th century by Turloch O' Connor to commemorate the completion of St Mary's Cathedral and his victory over the O' Flahertys. It is now located in the grounds of the Church of Ireland Cathedral....

This statue by Albert Power, RHA stands in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Park. It commemorates Padraig O' Conaire, a pioneer in the Irish Literary Revival in this century. O' Conaire and Padraig Pearse are regarded as being the two most important short story writers in Irish during the first decades of the 20th century....

The Browne Doorway has stood in Eyre Square for three-quarters of a century. It was removed from an old mansion in Lower Abbeygate Street and bears the arms of the Brown and Lynch families dated 1627. It is now the entrance to the John Fitzgerald Memorial Park, Eyre Square....

The strong iron cannons, which have stood in Eyre Square for as long as anybody can remember, were presented to the Connaught Rangers, at the end of the Crimean War. The Rangers who subsequently became known throughout the world for their mutiny in India during 1920 in support of the Irish War of Independence, were involved in the Alma Valley battles in 1854. During the course of the campaign they captured and destroyed the town of Burlymk. To mark this and other military achievements they were...

The Lynch Memorial is situated near the Church of St Nicholas in the form of a black marble stone over a built-up Gothic doorway. It commemorates the - stern and unbending justice - of James Lynch Fitzstephen, Mayor of Galway in 1493, who found his own son Walter guilty of murdering a Spanish visitor and condemned him to death. When no one could be found to carry out the sentence, so the popular but dubious legend goes, the Mayor hanged his own son before retiring into seclusion....

A reminder of another war, culminating in the Fight for Independence can be seen at eyre Square. In a circular island stands a statue by Donal Murphy of Liam Mellows, the patriot who led one of the few military engagements outside Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. The Liam Mellows Hurling Club, founded in 1934, is named in his honour....