Things to do in Tuam

Ten things to see

1. 

   01

   Temple Jarlath

   3.7 km west of the Square

   On High Street, near the centre: the site of the monastery Jarlath founded about 526 to 527. What survives is a late thirteenth-century parish church with an east window in the Transitional style.

2. 02

   The Mill Museum

   An undershot water-wheel corn mill off Shop Street, beside the River Nanny, with origins in the seventeenth century and in use until 1964. It is the only preserved corn mill in the west of Ireland; the complex has the restored mill with its working wheel, an audiovisual museum and the tourist information office.

3. 

   03

   Cathedral of the Assumption

   Bishop Street · 245 m east of the Square

   The Roman Catholic cathedral, built 1827 to 1837, seat of the Archdiocese of Tuam. A statue of Archbishop John MacHale stands at it.

4. 

   04

   St Mary's Cathedral

   High Street · 301 m west of the Square

   The Church of Ireland cathedral, built 1861 to 1878, incorporating a twelfth-century red sandstone chancel arch in Irish Romanesque style, a national monument, and a fourteenth-century chancel. The High Cross of Tuam stands in its south transept.

5. 

   05

   The High Cross of Tuam

   297 m south-west of the Square

   Erected in 1152, reputedly once the tallest in Ireland, though the top of its shaft is missing and its ringed head comes from a second cross. The base was found by the archaeologist George Petrie around 1820.

6. 06

   The Chair of Tuam

   The monument unveiled in 1980 marks where the town's sovereign was sworn in under the 1613 charter, believed to be within the surviving tower of Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair's 1164 castle.

7. 

   07

   Castle Hackett

   8.3 km west of the Square

   A thirteenth-century tower house near the town, home first of the Hacket family and, after the Cromwellian settlement, of the Kirwans. Scenes from the 1969 film Alfred the Great were shot around Castlehacket and Knockma.

8. 

   08

   Feartagar Castle

   8.6 km north-west of the Square

   A Burke castle 8 km north-west of Tuam.

9. 

   09

   Kilbannon

   The monastic site founded in the fifth century by Benignus of Armagh, north-west of the town, where Jarlath was a member of the community before he came to Tuam.

10. 10

    Tuam Stadium, St Jarlath's Park

    Opened on 21 May 1950 and long called the home of Galway football; it has hosted Connacht senior finals. A redevelopment with a new 6,400-seat stand has planning permission.

Things to do