Athenry Attractions

The R349 and R348 run northwest from Loughrea through an area which becomes steadily more stony and barren, coming in 12mi/20km to Athenry, a little town situated at a railroad junction, which was a place of some consequence until the end of the 16th C. and has preserved many medieval buildings. Athenry Castle (1235-50; National Monument) is a ruined tower house with roof gables within the remains of curtain walls with two corner towers. The Dominican Friary (National Monument), founded in 1241 and in subsequent centuries much altered and several times destroyed, is represented by a ruined church containing a number of funerary monuments. The Market Cross, of which only the base and the top part survive, has reliefs of the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child (15th C.). The remains of the medieval town walls (probably early 14th C.) show the extent of the old town; the tower-like north gate is well preserved.

Around Athenry are several prehistoric and numerous medieval structures.