Kilmacduagh Monastery

Kilmacduagh was founded in the seventh century by Colman mac Duagh and became the seat of a diocese. Its round tower is about thirty-four metres, the tallest surviving in Ireland, and it leans roughly half a metre out of true - the doorway is unusually high off the ground even by round tower standards, around seven metres up. Around it stand a cathedral with a fifteenth-century tower, the Glebe House or abbot's house, and several church ruins spread across two fields, giving a better sense of a monastic settlement's spread than more compact sites do. The whole complex sits in flat Burren-edge country with the hills behind. Access is free and unstaffed; the tower interior is closed, and the cathedral is locked, with a key held at a house nearby - a sign gives the details. It is quiet, and often empty.

What you actually see

• The round tower - about thirty-four metres, the tallest in Ireland, and leaning.
• The cathedral - with its fifteenth-century tower, locked and key-access.
• The spread of ruins - churches and the abbot's house across two fields.
• The Burren backdrop - the hills rising behind the flat monastic ground.

When to go

April to October for the ground conditions. The site is open at any hour; the cathedral needs the key from the nearby house, which is not always answered.

Honest expectations

The round tower cannot be entered. The cathedral is locked and the key arrangement is informal. Unstaffed with minimal interpretation, roadside parking, and fields that are muddy after rain.

Nearby

Gort and Thoor Ballylee are north-east; the Burren begins to the south-west.