Cooly Cross and Skull House

The Cooley Cross is located just outside the perimeter walls of an ancient graveyard near Moville. This is an early example of a High Cross and dates to the 8th century AD. The cross stands 10 feet high, is plain, and has an odd-looking hole on its top. This hole is thought to have contained a peg serving as a ‘gnomon’ for a rudimentary sundial and so the vertical shadow indicated the hour of noon. There is a cross with a similar hole on the greater Aran Island where the vertical shadow line is marked. At the base is a large flat stone containing a crude representation of a human foot, traditionally ascribed to St. Patrick himself. These types of hole-stones date back to pagan times and are thought to be used during marriages when couples joined hands when making vows.

Info courtesy of the curiousirelandwebsite

The Skull House is believed to be the resting place of Moville’s local Saint Finian.

the road

on the right leads to the old St. Cathrine Church ruins and graveyard which I posted back in Sept.

Old St. Catherine's Church and Graveyard

I shared a post back in April of this ruin, this is a closer view as I walked around it.
The church was built around the 1400’s.

view of the back

a view inside

looking through, you can see ships in the harbour and a guy strimming the grass/weeds

another view looking inside toward the far side of the ruin, you can see a couple of gravestones

part of the graveyard

Abbey Graveyard

in Donegal Town and viewed from the Bank Walk across Donegal Bay.

The ruins of this once stately complex can be found on a scenic parcel of land at the mouth of the Eske River, where it pours into Donegal Bay. Built in 1474 by Hugh O'Donnell, the abbey withstood ransacking, burning and ravaging before it was finally abandoned in the early part of the 17th century. Known locally as "the old abbey", the only recognizable parts of the ruins today are the south transept, choir, and parts of the cloisters. The adjoining graveyard is filled, providing evidence that people were buried here well into the 18th century.
Info from Aransweatersdirect website

Ballinrobe Public Library 2

Ballinrobe Library was converted from St. Mary's Church, an 18th century Church of Ireland church which was in very poor condition.  The building was carefully restored in 1996. The library is accessed through an archway on the Main Street.
Medieval Irish Churches, were frequently converted to suit the practices of the new Protestant religious requirements, and had been built usually of roughly coursed limestone.   Few of the Church of Ireland denominations places of worship retain their original features especially, the seventeenth or eighteenth century physical arrangements of Churches as is the case with St. Mary's.

Photos taken - 2014
Info courtesy of Historical Ballinrobe

The current architectural style of the St. Mary’s Church is typical of the early 19th century ‘Board of First Fruits’ Church which was used as a term describe an architectural style.   This  re-introduction gothic elements of architecture and decoration in the late 18th and early 19th century in Ireland.    They were a result of the British Government funded, and Church of Ireland controlled Board, which made grants and loans available for the repair or building of Churches and Glebe Houses. 

St. Mary's was a simple oblong, gable-ended structure and was probably converted for use by the Established Church sometime between 1660 and 1780.   Many refurbishments and alterations took place over the centuries with the removal of the box pews c. 1860 and the triple tier pulpit. 

There was a steeple erected on a tower around 1815 which lasted only 9 years and must have sustained serious damage, perhaps from a great storm before its permanent removal.