APHSource: GALWAY ARCH. AND HISTORT SOCIETT JOURNAL VOL. 14 P77 VOL. 14
Mr. Charles McNeill was able to correct the longstanding blunder about the Franciscan abbey, but he noted 2 other difficulties (1) Why they are within the so-called town walls 80 far exceeds the average for a fortified Norman city and {2) Whether the present walls so slender and poorly constructed, could ever have been intended for effective defence. In a letter of Lard Deputy Sydney 1576 quoted by Mr. McNeill we read “I have cut the towns almost into 2 equal parts, it being before full as bigge and with a fairer high wall as the town of Galway
In the British museum is preserved a small map of which our our former correspondents had no knowledge. It was recently introduced to the notice of the survey by Mr. K.J. Blake. It was prepared by a man named Browne in 1583, for Lord Deputy Sydney. This map shows Sidney’s wall and m good part of it is still traceable, it forms the mearings of gardens in some places, side of s shed in others. It shows the present walls with such accuracy that one feels bound to accept the map as of lst class authority. Local tradition so valuable at times, may also put one terribly astray, all the gate names described in 1919 and shown in the old 0rdanance Survey must be changed in view of Browned map. Thus the Laragate (Lord according to Browne) instead of opening east to the Dominican Abbey was the Western Gate leading to Galway, the Spital or Swan-gate was the southern gate close to the old manse, the Nicolas gate faced North and was called the Chapel gate in recent times, the Britton gate was the one leading to the abbey most strange of all and the only one of the gateways to have survived (that on the North East) appears not to have been a gate at all in the 16th Century only a tower
The South-west half of the area within the walls has consisted of fields, gardens and lawns for a long time, A glance at the map would suggest that the Munster Road is a direct continuation of Cross St. through a green field by the real Spittle Gate. Mr Knox considered this gate and the adjoining walls to be 17th century work and so he inferred that the road through it was also m 17th century diversion. It would be much simpler to accept the road as the original Munster Road and the walls as a restoration after the assault of 0′ Donnella men in 1596. No history of the Spital has been given so far, the great open area between its supposed location and the centre of the town suggests an isolation hospital on a big scale in fact a regular medieval Leper settlement.
There are numerous old walls in this area pointing to former works and buildings of considerable importance. One curious erection that would puzzle most visitors is a very small triangular enclosure having 3 Gothic cut stone entrances from 3 different fields which are here separated by high walls which have been raised at this point. The upper point of the enclosure is provided with cells in the stonework to form a dovecot. There are people however who remember that this was used as a sort of belfry: someone used to ring a bell there to announce the approach of the Dublin coach. The stonework is in the style of the 13th century. So this may have been a belfry used in the leper settlement seven centuries ago.
