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Burrishoole Abbey

As mentioned in my post about Abney Park Cemetery, I like wandering around graveyards – the older the better - and taking photos. I’ve been staying outside Newport, County Mayo, with friends for the last few days, and much to my morbid delight was able to visit the ruins of Burrishoole Abbey and the cemetery that surrounds it. Situated upon a sheltered shore just outside the town, the abbey was founded in 1470 by Richard de Burgo of Turlough - Lord MacWilliam Oughter - and apparently built without the permission of the Pope. In 1793 the roof of the abbey collapsed and because almost all the friaries and abbeys across Ireland were suppressed in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th century, it was never rebuilt. All that remains today is the rather gothic looking church and the eastern wall of the cloister, while the grounds are still used as a cemetery.

The close proximity of the cemetery to the sea and the eerie atmosphere such combined imagery evokes, really reminded me of the setting for The Woman in Black (1989). Being the horror aficionado that I am, I tried to find out if there were any reported hauntings or spooky tales about the place: these proved elusive. I did however read a tragic and gruesome story about the brutal deaths of several nuns at the hands of British soldiers in the vicinity of the abbey.

In 1563, Sister Honoria De Burgo (Nora Burke) daughter of Richard an Ierain (Iron Dick) – the second husband of pirate queen Grace Ó Malley (Granuaile) – built a small convent close to the abbey where she lived with her fellow sisters. Around 1580 she and the other sisters fled from marauding British soldiers and sought sanctuary in the mountains. When they thought it safe to return to the convent, they were seized by the soldiers, stripped, beaten to death and their bodies thrown into a boat. One of the sisters, Magaen, managed to escape, and when she reached the shore she hid in the forest. Seeking refuge inside a hollow tree, she was found dead the following day and eventually buried alongside her sisters. Perhaps they still wander the grounds of the abbey and the surrounding shore?

Here are a few photos of the place...















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