Tuam
mound or burial-place; the old name Tuaim Dá Ghualann is the burial mound of two shoulders, which the article says probably refers to the high ground either side of the River Nanny, while Joyce takes it from the shape of the mound itself
Galway's second town grew up around a monastery founded by St Jarlath in the 6th century and keeps his broken chariot wheel on its coat of arms. In the 12th century it was the seat of the High Kings Tairrdelbach and Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair and became an archbishopric in 1152. It is also the site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, where excavations from 2016 found infant remains in a former cesspit; a forensic dig began in July 2025.
A Bronze Age burial urn of about 1500 BC was found here in 1875. In the early 6th century the monk Jarlath, told by St Brendan to settle wherever his chariot broke, founded a monastery here, though there is no evidence for the chariot. In 1049 Aedh O'Connor built a castle and made Tuam his chief stronghold, and under Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair (r. 1106–1156) it became the seat of a High King and home to masterpieces such as the Cross of Cong. At the Synod of Kells in 1152 Tuam became an archbishopric. In 1164 Ruaidrí built the first Irish-built stone castle, but after the cathedral was destroyed in 1184 he retired to Cong, and Tuam did not grow in importance again until the early 17th century.
Fairs were central to the town, one dating from letters patent of 1252. The High Cross, sent to Dublin for the Great Exhibition of 1852, came back to a dispute between the Catholic and Church of Ireland cathedrals and was set up halfway between them, in the square by 1874; it was moved into St Mary's Cathedral after 1992. In July 1920 armed RIC men damaged the town hall after an IRA ambush. The Bon Secours home for unmarried mothers ran from 1925 to 1961; local historian Catherine Corless brought its burials to light in 2014, and a forensic excavation began on 14 July 2025.
Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Tuam ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Tuam · high cross · under 1 km
- Kilbennan · round tower · 4 km
- Castle Hackett · castle · 8 km
- Feartagar Castle · castle · 9 km
- Dunmore Castle · castle · 14 km
Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.
- Knockdoe · 1504: the Great Earl of Kildare, with half of Ireland, against the Burkes with the other half — the largest battle Ireland had seen, over a private quarrel.
All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.
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