Errew, Earrach, Co. Mayo

Earrach · Co. Mayo

A ruined abbey on a Lough Conn peninsula. The lake on three sides. The 13th century keeps its shape.

Errew is a quiet settlement on the western shore of Lough Conn, between Crossmolina to the north and Castlebar to the south. There are houses, farmland, a lane running toward the water. The reason to come is the abbey: Errew Abbey, a 13th-century Augustinian monastery built on a small peninsula that pokes into the lake like a finger pointing at the opposite shore.

The walk to the abbey is short and the approach is the thing - the lane narrows, the lake opens on both sides, the ruin comes into view as you round a bend. The monastery's nave is roofless but the walls are largely standing. The east window is cut stone, ornamental, still holding its shape after seven centuries. There's a smaller chapel to the north - the so-called nuns chapel - and the remains of a circular doorway in the north wall that has the look of something that was already ancient when the Augustinians built around it.

The older foundation here predates the 13th-century building. Tradition holds that Saint Tiernan - patron saint of nearby Crossmolina - established an early monastery on this site in the 6th century. Whether or not the chronology is exact, the place carries the weight of long occupation. The Augustinians took over and built in earnest; the Reformation ended it; Cromwellian destruction reduced it to what you see now. What remains is more than you expect from a place this far off the road.

The lake is the other thing. Lough Conn is wild trout water - never artificially stocked, season running February to September for salmon. Professional boatmen work out of the area in season. The Errew peninsula gives you the quietest angle on the lake, with Nephin rising across the water and the light doing what it does over a large body of still water in the west of Ireland.

Walk score

Peninsula walk to the abbey: twenty minutes each way

Coords

53.9200° N, 9.3000° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The abbey

Augustinian ruins on a spit of land in the lake.

Errew Abbey stands on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lough Conn, with water on three sides. The 13th-century Augustinian monastery is a ruin now - roofless nave, trefoil windows still intact in places, a smaller 'nuns chapel' to the north. You walk out to it on a muddy path and arrive somewhere genuinely old.

Stories & lore → 02 Lough Conn

Ireland's seventh-largest lake, and it has never been stocked.

Lough Conn is wild trout and salmon water - genuinely wild, never artificially stocked. The lake runs 14km south from Crossmolina and connects to Lough Cullin via the Pontoon narrows. Anglers come from across Europe. The Errew peninsula gives you the lake from its quietest angle.

Walks & getting out → 03 Nephin

The mountain is always visible from here.

Nephin (806m) rises south-east across the lake. From the Errew peninsula on a clear day you get the full profile - straight drop on the north side, the longer slope going south. It frames everything you see from the abbey ruins. The mountain is wild and rarely climbed; from the water it looks even bigger.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Augustinian monastery, founded 13th century

Errew Abbey

The Augustinian priory at Errew was founded in the 13th century, most likely through the patronage of the Barrett family - Cambro-Norman lords who controlled this stretch of north Mayo during the medieval consolidation. The site on the Lough Conn peninsula was almost certainly already a place of religious significance: the tradition of Saint Tiernan's 6th-century foundation is consistent with the pattern of Augustinian houses built atop older Irish monastic sites throughout the west. The monastery's Irish name - Mainistir Taobh Thiar do Shruth, 'abbey west of the stream' - suggests an earlier topographic identity that survived the new order's arrival. The trefoil-headed windows in the nave are the most intact surviving feature. The sedilia - stone seats for clergy - are still visible in the chancel wall. The ruins were surveyed in the 19th century and the stonework is considered good quality for a rural Connacht house of this period.

The Mias Thighernáin and Lough Conn

The Plate of Saint Tiernan

The relic known as the Mias Thighernáin - Saint Tiernan's dish, or plate - is one of the odder strands of the Errew tradition. According to local records, the sacred vessel associated with the 6th-century founder lay at the bottom of Lough Conn for an extended period - the folklore doesn't agree on how long - before surfacing to be recovered. The O'Flynn family were the hereditary keepers of the relic. What exactly the dish was, where it came from, or where it ended up is unclear; the records are fragmentary. But the story is old enough and specific enough to suggest a real object at its centre, worked over by centuries of retelling until the plain fact has become unrecoverable beneath the miracle.

Never stocked, always wild

Lough Conn fishing

Lough Conn is one of the few significant Irish fishing lakes that has never been artificially stocked - all the brown trout and salmon in it are wild. The lake runs roughly 14 kilometres from Crossmolina south to the Pontoon narrows, where it connects to Lough Cullin. The western shore, where Errew sits, gives access to some of the most reliable trout water. Anglers have been working this stretch for as long as anyone can verify; the Enniscoe estate on the eastern shore maintained fishing rights through the 19th century and into the 20th. The season runs February to September for salmon; trout fishing continues longer. The boatmen who work the lake are a specific type - experienced, taciturn about their best marks, and worth listening to if they choose to talk.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Errew Abbey Peninsula Walk From the lane end off the Crossmolina road, follow the footpath out onto the peninsula to the abbey ruins. The path can be muddy after rain - boots are sensible. The walk opens the lake on both sides as you go. The abbey is the destination but the approach through the reeds and scrub is what makes it.

2.5 km returndistance

45 mintime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Fishing season opens. The lake is alive. The abbey is dry enough for a comfortable walk. Nephin clear most mornings.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

No crowd pressure here - Errew gets none of the Westport tourist volume. The peninsula walk is good any day the rain holds off.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The lake light in autumn is worth the drive. Good fishing continues into October. The ruins are most atmospheric in low cloud.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The peninsula path floods in hard weather. The abbey is open air and has no off-season, but check the lane is passable.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

The abbey in a hurry

The site is small but the details reward attention - the window tracery, the sedilia, the nuns chapel north of the main building. Give it twenty minutes rather than five.

Wearing road shoes on the peninsula path

The path to the abbey crosses wet ground. In most seasons, wellingtons or waterproof boots are not overcautious.

Getting there.

By car

From Crossmolina, head south on the R315 toward Castlebar. Watch for the unsigned lane turning west toward Lough Conn - local signage for Errew Abbey is present but modest. From Castlebar, the R315 north through Pontoon and along the lough's western shore. Allow 20 minutes from Crossmolina, 40 from Castlebar.

By bus

No direct bus to Errew. Bus Éireann connects Crossmolina and Castlebar. A car or taxi is needed for the final stretch to the abbey lane.

By air

Ireland West Airport (NOC) at Knock is about 50 minutes by car. Shannon is 2h 15m.