The history of Roundstone
The O'Flahertys' priory, Round-stone Haven, Nimmo's village, the monastery, the painters and the films. 7 moments, in order.
- 15th century
The O'Flahertys' priory
The chiefs of the O'Flahertys, who ruled the country to the north, built a Dominican priory about 3 km north of where the village now stands.
- 1684
Round-stone Haven
Roderick O'Flaherty already called the bay by that name; the rock at its entrance is strikingly round. The Irish Cloch na Rón means the seal's rock, and the two names may be independent.
- 1820s
Nimmo's village
The Scottish engineer Alexander Nimmo founded Roundstone while building roads, houses and harbours across the west; Scottish fishermen settled here.
- 1835
The Franciscan monastery
Built after Catholic Emancipation. By the end of the 1840s the village had a thriving fishery and 400 people.
- 20th century
The painters
Paul Henry, Jack B. Yeats, Gerard Dillon and Nano Reid all painted here; John Huston filmed The Mackintosh Man in 1973, followed by Into the West, The Matchmaker, Marley & Me and Love Me No More.
- Early 1980s
Zenyatta Mondatta
Sting had a home in Roundstone and wrote most of The Police's third album here.
- 2021
North Sea Connection
The six-part drama series was filmed in the village.
Where this comes from
Every paragraph above summarises a statement in Wikipedia, "Roundstone, County Galway", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, as it read on 2026-09-19. Follow it for the footnotes. Nothing has been added from memory.