HomeEventsLectures: Surrounded By Stone at Galway City Museum
7th September | 14:00 - 16:00

Lectures: Surrounded By Stone at Galway City Museum

Surrounded by Stone is a new exhibition that features the story of the iconic stone monuments that mark Galway as a place of rich artistic and architectural vision and traditions from 1100 BC to 1750 AD. It explores the striking design and craft sensibility that saw a range of remarkable buildings – from the stone forts of Aran, the early church and monastic sites, and the buildings of medieval town of Galway – appear across the rural and urban landscapes. To support the exhibition, the Museum welcomes three guest archaeologists, each of whom who will speak about an iconic stone structure in Galway.

Claire Cotter on Dún Aonghusa
Dramatically perched atop a sea-cliff on Inis Mór, Dún Aonghusa is a semi-circular stone fortress that was built in the Bronze age and rebuilt in the Medieval period. As part of the Western Stone Forts project, Claire Cotter excavated Dún Aonghusa in the 1990s, and afterwards published her findings in two volumes.

Christy Cunniffe on Clonfert Cathedral
Located in east Galway, close to the River Shannon, St Brendan’s Cathedral or Clonfert Cathedral is famed for its twelfth century Hiberno-Romanesque doorway. Heritage expert Chrity Cunniffe is a retired field monument advisor for Galway County Council and curator at the Irish Workhouse Museum, Portumna.

Paul Walsh on Galway’s medieval town walls
The Anglo-Norman de Burghs captured the Gaelic fortress of Dún Bun na Gaillimhe in 1232. There, they built a castle, about which a town developed. From the 1270s onwards a stone wall was built around the town to protect its citizens. One stretch of wall, Ceann an Bhalla, now known as the Spanish Arch, stands adjacent to the Museum. Paul Walsh is the author of Renaissance Galway: Delineating the Seventeenth-Century City and co-author of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA), No. 28, Galway/Gaillimh.

This event is free of charge but, as seating is limited, advance booking is strongly advised. For further details or to book a place, please call the Museum on (091) 532460 or email museum@galwaycity.ie.

Event Date
7th September 2024 - 7th September 2024
Event Time
14:00 - 16:00
Event Category Venue
Galway City Museum
Location
Spanish Arch
Event Address
Spanish Parade,
Galway
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Ticket Price
free
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