Mayo of the Saxons to County Mayo

A Millennium of Settlement

Mayo Parish Heritage Committee will hold an information evening on the upcoming LiDAR survey of the Early Christian Monastic site at Mayo Abbey and surrounding environs in the Mayo Abbey Community Centre (F12 X8P5) on Thursday, June 29th, commencing at 8pm sharp.  The LiDAR survey, together with a number of community outreach initiatives, is being supported by the Heritage Council under the Community Heritage Grant Scheme 2023.

Mayo Abbey village today gives little indication of it’s proud heritage and its importance as a major centre in the Celtic-Anglo Saxon Christian world in the 7th and 8th century.  A monastery was founded in Maigh Eó (The Plain of the Yew Trees), c. 670AD for a group of Saxon monks by St. Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne.  The monastery became known as ‘Mayo of the Saxons’. For more than a thousand years it remained the most important centre in the region becoming in turn a diocese, a Norman town and gave it’s name to County Mayo, the third largest county in Ireland.

The information evening entitled Mayo of the Saxons to County Mayo … a Millennium of Settlement will include presentations by Mr Michael Timothy who recently completed an MA on the History of Mayo Abbey 600 -1600AD in Atlantic Technological University, Castlebar Campus and Dr Paul Naessens, Western Aerial Survey and Photographic Services, who will be carrying out the Mayo Abbey LiDAR Survey 2023.  The event, which is open to Mayo Abbey parishioners and anybody with an interest in Mayo history and Heritage, is free of charge.  Further information from heritage@mayoabbey.ie

Mayo Parish Heritage Committee gratefully acknowledges the support of the Heritage Council under the Community Heritage Grant Scheme 2023.

Mayo Parish Heritage Committee photographed in front of the remnants of St. Michael’s Medieval Church with the refurbished St. Colman’s FamineÕChurch in the background (L to R): Paddy Gibbons, Martin Flatley, Mary Jo Barrett, Elizabeth Nestor, Eddie Barrett, Joe Brett, Tom Delaney, Jimmy Finn