St. Brendan of Clonfert (aka Brendan the Navigator) received the grant of land here from the Kig of Connacht in the sixth century. The building itself is rather drab and does not prepare one for the fantastically intricate design of the window, which was probably swiped from the Priory, down the road. The cathedral is sited on the foundations of a church that was burned in the twelfth century - the current building dates from the fifteenth century. There are a number of other ruins on the same site, such as the Abbey of St. John the Baptist De Cella Parva and the College of St. Brendan. There was also supposed to be a round tower on the site until the early part of the thirteenth century - there was no trace of it even 150 years ago.
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