Results of Mayo Abbey monastic site survey to be unveiled

THE results of a LiDAR survey of the Early Christian Monastic site at Mayo Abbey and surrounding environs will be unveiled at a Heritage Week event hosted by Mayo Parish Heritage Committee in Mayo Abbey Community Centre (F12 X8P5) on Friday, August 18, at 8 p.m.

Mayo Abbey village today gives little indication of its proud heritage and its importance as a major centre in the Celtic-Anglo Saxon Christian world in the 7th and 8th century.

A monastery was founded in Maigh Eó (The Plain of the Yew Trees) c. 670AD for a group of Saxon monks by St. Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne. The monastery became known as Mayo of the Saxons and for more than a thousand years it remained the most important centre in the region, becoming in turn a university, a diocese and a Norman town, and it gave its name to County Mayo, the third largest county in Ireland.

The 2023 LiDAR survey is supported by The Heritage Council under the Community Heritage Grant Scheme 2023 together with a number of community outreach initiatives.

Dr. Paul Naessens, Western Aerial Survey and Photographic Services, Galway, carried out the survey in recent weeks and together with consultant archaeologist Paddy Walsh, will present and interpret the exciting results.

The event is open to Mayo Abbey parishioners and anybody with an interest in Mayo history and heritage and is free of charge.