The atmospheric ruin of a 12th-century Augustinian abbey founded by Turlough O'Connor, High King of Connacht, in the Mayo village of Cong. Finely carved Romanesque stonework, royal burials and the monks' roofless fishing house on the Cong River make it one of the west's most evocative monastic sites.
The ruined nave and choir keep original 12th- and 13th-century walls, including the north and south walls and the east gable, with 19th-century rebuilding filling the gaps. Enter through the late-Romanesque doorway in the north wall; the interior now serves as a graveyard.
The north-east stretch of the cloister is thought to be original, and beside it a fine doorway leads to the chapter house where the monks read the rule and conducted business. Much of today's fabric reflects 19th-century conservation by the Guinness family.
About 90m west of the abbey, this small roofless stone building perches on a platform over the Cong River, with a hole in the floor for lowering nets and a fireplace in the west gable. Its present look is largely a 19th-century reconstruction.
Cong is a prime example of the late-Romanesque School of the West, whose foliate carvings cover capitals, corbels and doorways. The slype and chapter-house doorways combine pointed Gothic heads with elaborate Romanesque ornament.
The abbey sits in the heart of Cong, the village made famous by The Quiet Man. Waymarked loops on the Cong riverbank and in the surrounding wood pass caves, weirs and the fishing house, with Ashford Castle just beyond.
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