Qualla: Aughagower

Aughagower: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Störfix, CC BY-SA 3.0. Aughagower has roughly forty houses, a pub, and a shop. It also has a tenth-century round tower in remarkable condition, the ruins of a medieval abbey, a small stone called St. Patrick's Knee with a water-filled depression said to be the saint's own impression, a circular bath called Patrick's Vat, and a 150-kilogram stone called Cloughundra that local folklore says was thrown across fields by a giant. The village sits halfway along Tochar Phadraig, the ancient pilgrim road from Ballintubber Abbey to Croagh Patrick. Pilgrims still walk through. The village's relationship with Saint Patrick is the kind that lasts not centuries but millennia, and the layers of devotion, legend, and stone are still visible to anyone who pulls off the road for an hour.

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Image: Störfix | CC BY-SA 3.0

Aughagower: Patrick Built a Church Here

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 441, according to the Book of Armagh, Saint Patrick founded a church and bishopric at Aughagower and appointed Bishop Senach to head it. Senach was one of Patrick's closest followers, originally from Armagh, who had travelled with him to Mayo as part of his household. The Book...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

Aughagower: The Round Tower

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Horn, CC BY-SA 2.0. The tower at Aughagower is one of the best-preserved Irish round towers, missing only its top section and capstone. It was built between 973 and 1013, during the period when these towers proliferated across Ireland in response to repeated raids from Vikings, Norse-Gaels, and warr...

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Image: Graham Horn | CC BY-SA 2.0

Aughagower: Patrick's Vat and the Sheela

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dabhach Phadraig, Patrick's Vat or Patrick's Tub, is a circular stone-walled bath where pilgrims would wash their feet, traditionally said to have been used by Patrick himself and his household. Local drainage has left it dry except in extremely wet weather. In a nearby ditch in ...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

Aughagower: The Giant's Stone

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Munifico, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the village green stands Cloughundra, also rendered Cloch Andra, a large stone of approximately 150 kilograms. Local folklore says a giant in Aughagower used to throw the stone over his shoulder as far as another man would throw a pebble. The stone supposedly bears the trace o...

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Image: Munifico | CC BY-SA 3.0

Aughagower: The Carrowkennedy Ambush

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MickReynolds, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 2 June 1921, in the south of Aughagower parish at Carrowkennedy, an IRA flying column commanded by Michael Kilroy ambushed a mobile patrol of the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserves, the Black and Tans. It was one of the few significant engagements of the Irish War of In...

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Image: MickReynolds | CC BY-SA 4.0