St. Gobnet's Church is a medieval church and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

located on

Inisheer Inisheer ( ga, Inis Oírr , or ) is the smallest and most easterly of the three Aran Islands in Galway Bay, Ireland. With 281 residents as of the 2016 census, it is second-most populous of the Arans. Caomhán of Inis Oírr is the island's ...

, Ireland.

Location

St. Gobnet's Church is located in the northern part of Inisheer, in the

Aran Islands The Aran Islands ( ; gle, Oileáin Árann, ) or The Arans (''na hÁrainneacha'' ) are a group of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland, with a total area around . They constitute the historic barony of Aran ...

History

The site is believed to have been in use since the 6th century. According to traditional tales, Saint

Gobnait Saint Gobnait (?), also known as Gobnat or Mo Gobnat or Abigail or Deborah, is the name of a medieval, female Irish saint whose church was Móin Mór, later Bairnech, in the village of Ballyvourney ( ga, Baile Bhuirne), County Cork in Ireland.Jo ...

fled from

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

to Inisheer to escape a family feud. Later, an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inc ...

appeared to her and told her to return to the mainland and go south until she saw nine white deer; she settled at Ballyvourney and built a religious community. The remains of her

beehive hut A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus ''Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature d ...

are said to be on Inisheer. The stone church was built in the 11th or 12th century. The church was excavated in 1980 by W. Walsh.

Church

A rectangular stone church. The remains of a

are visible; there are also two

bullaun A bullaun ( ga, bullán; from a word cognate with "bowl" and French ''bol'') is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. The size of the bullaun is high ...

stones and three raised stone slabs.

References

{{Reflist Aran Islands Former churches in County Galway Archaeological sites in County Galway National monuments in County Galway