Overview
Murrisk is where most people start the climb up Croagh Patrick, and on the last Sunday of July – Reek Sunday – thousands set off from the village, some of them barefoot in memory of Saint Patrick’s 40-day fast on the summit. The village sits on the southern shore of Clew Bay, about 8 km west of Westport in County Mayo. If you have only an hour and no intention of climbing the Reek, spend it at the National Famine Memorial across from the car park – it is the one thing here that stops people in their tracks.
Name and early history
The name Murrisk (Irish: Muraisc) has two competing origins. Most scholars favour Muir Riasc, ‘marsh by the sea’, which fits the village’s low-lying coastal ground; an older, more mythic reading points to Muir Iasc, ‘sea monster’. Murrisk was once the centre of an old barony stretching from Westport to Clare Island. By the 19th century the Garvey family held the local estate, and a silver chalice made for the monastery in 1635 carries the names of Theobald, Lord Viscount Mayo, and his wife Maeve – a direct link to the pirate queen Grace O’Malley (Granuaile), whose ancestors granted the land to the friars.
Murrisk Abbey and the pilgrimage route
Murrisk Abbey was founded in the 1450s – sources split between 1456 and 1457 – by the O’Malley family, and it served as a staging post for pilgrims heading up the mountain. The Augustinian friars built an L-shaped complex of church, sacristy, chapter room and domestic quarters. The ruins still carry good stonework: a five-light east window with cusped ogee arches, remnants of a battlement on the south wall, and two carved stone heads, one bearded and one in a hat, set into the walls. The friars were expelled during the Reformation, but the adjoining cemetery is still in use.
A signposted 1 km walk from the village centre leads to the abbey. Local tradition names a narrow lane on the route Boher na miasa, ‘the road of the dishes’, where the monks are said to have washed their utensils in a nearby stream.
National Famine Memorial
Directly opposite the Croagh Patrick car park stands the National Famine Memorial, unveiled in July 1997 by President Mary Robinson. The sculptor John Behan cast it as a ‘coffin ship’ – the overcrowded, disease-ridden vessels that carried starving emigrants to North America in the 1840s. Skeletal figures cling to the rigging. It is a hard thing to look at, and better for it, set as it is against Clew Bay. The memorial sits within the Murrisk Millennium Peace Park, with interpretive panels on the famine’s toll in Mayo.
Fishing heritage
Long before the pilgrimage crowds, Murrisk was a working fishing community. The Augustinian monks are credited with teaching local people to fish the bay from small currachs. By the late 19th century the Congested Districts Board recorded Murrisk fishermen working small trawlers along the coast, and in 1894 they built a small pier for safe anchorage. The Fishing Museum in the Murrisk Community Centre, beside the Croagh Patrick car park, tells the story of fishing in the village up to the mid-1960s through archive photographs, boat-building tools and old reports. A 2005 Fishermen’s Memorial near the old pier honours the generations who worked the waters of Clew Bay.
Beaches and coastal walks
- Bertra Beach – A Blue Flag beach five minutes’ drive from the village. The 2.6 km sandy spit has summer lifeguard cover, a free car park with about 40 spaces (including disabled bays) and basic toilets. The sand runs out to Bartra Island, and the 4 km loop around the spit is fine walking but tide-dependent: check the tide tables before you set out, because the rising water can cut off the return.
- Bartraw Strand – A quieter sand-and-shingle beach linking west to Thornhill Strand and north to White Strand, and a good spot for migratory waders. Spring and autumn bring curlews, oystercatchers and redshanks, best watched early.
Pattern Day and local events
Reek Sunday draws the biggest crowds, but Murrisk’s own celebration is Pattern Day, held on the last or second-last Sunday in August. It opens with Mass at the abbey, then runs through traditional music, céilí dancing, a vintage vehicle show, sheep-dog trials and craft stalls. It is a good deal less frantic than the July pilgrimage, and a better day for families.
Practical information
- Getting there: Murrisk is on the R335 (Louisburgh Road). Bus Éireann route 450 runs several times daily between Louisburgh, Lecanvey, Murrisk, Westport, Achill. The nearest train station is Westport, about 11 km away.
- Parking and entry: Parking is free at the Croagh Patrick car park (which also serves the Famine Memorial), at Bertra Beach and along the village streets. The abbey, memorial, peace park and beaches are all free to access.
- Visitor centre: The former Croagh Patrick Visitor Centre by the car park has changed hands – Mayo County Council approved leasing it to a local LEADER partnership – so don’t count on it being open as an interpretive centre. Check locally before you rely on it for information or facilities.
- Facilities: Public toilets at Bertra Beach.
- Accessibility: The 1 km abbey walk is well signposted and manageable for most, but the ruins have uneven stone and steps, so wheelchair access to the abbey itself is limited.
Where to stay
Self-catering apartments and family-run B&Bs are dotted through Murrisk and the surrounding townlands, many with sea views and walking access to the abbey and beaches. Book well ahead for July (Reek Sunday) and August (Pattern Day), when rooms go quickly.
Nearby attractions
- Bartra Island – An uninhabited island just off the coast, reachable by a short boat trip or a low-tide walk from Bartraw Strand, with rugged paths and seabird colonies.
- Aughagower – A historic village further along the old pilgrim route, with a medieval church, ancient stone circles and alternative mountain access.
If you do one thing on a passing visit, make it the Famine Memorial – and if you plan to walk the Bertra spit, time it against the tide tables, not your watch.