Inishmurray is an uninhabited island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 situated 7 km off the coast of County Sligo, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It covers 228 acre (0.92268408 km²). On the island are remains of an early Irish monastic settlement

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

. Saint Molaise

Saint Molaise

Saint Molaise of Leighlin, also Laisrén or Laserian , was an early Irish saint and abbot of Lethglenn or Leithglenn, now Old Leighlin in Co. Carlow, who is supposed to have lived in the 6th and 7th centuries.-Life:...

 founded a monastery here in the 6th century. The island's ecclesiastical settlement was attacked in 807 by the Vikings.

The enclosure wall is impressive - reaching 15 feet (4.6 m) in height at its highest point and up to 3 meters thick. The site contains various ecclesiastical buildings including enclosures, a stone-roofed oratory, two churches, a clochan, a large beehive-shaped cell and other remains including cross slabs suggesting foreign influences. The whole complex is composed of what is probably local limestone rubble.

The local population peaked at just over 100 in the 1880s but the last residents moved out to the mainland on 12 November 1948. Some of the buildings are still visible including 15 houses and the island's only school.

The site remained a pilgrimage destination right up to recent times.

See also

• List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Sligo)

Literature

• Aubrey Gwynn
  Aubrey Gwynn
  -Life:He came from a Protestant academic family, the son of Stephen Gwynn and the grandson of John Gwynn, professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin. Gwynn converted to Roman Catholicism at age 10, when his mother was received into the Catholic Church.. He attended the Jesuit-run Clongowes...
  
  and R. N. Hadcock: Medieval Religious Houses Ireland. Longman, London, 1970, ISBN 0-582-11229-X.
• Patrick Heraughty: Inishmurray: Ancient Monastic Island. O'Brien, Dublin, 1982, ISBN 0-86278-473-5.
• Joe McGowan: Inishmurray: Island Voices, Aeolus Publications, 2004, ISBN 0-9521334-3-1.
• John Haywood: The Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, Thames & Hudson, 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-28831-3.