The Cathedral of the Assumption was built in 1827 – 37 on a hill overlooking Tuam, and was the second Roman Catholic Cathedral (after Newry) to be built in Ireland after Catholic Emancipation. The Irish Gothic Revival exterior is built of limestone with buttresses, elaborate window tracery, pinnacles, outstanding stained glass windows, and a variety of crisply carved stone embellishments. The Cathedral is the Cathedral Church of the Archdiocese of Tuam, and is of huge significance for the people of the 55 parishes of the Archdiocese and beyond.

Wejchert Architects have been appointed as lead consultant for the refurbishment Works to the Sanctuary of the Cathedral.

A tour will be led by Ann Cuffe Fitzgerald FRIAI Conservation Architect looking at conservation and restoration of pre-famine Great East window (1832) and East Elevation Stonework.

Tuam's Cathedral of the Assumption East Window, completed in 1832, was bowed and endangered, stonework trapped water- restored  to highest  standard and glare reduced by new outer glazing.

Wejchert Architects with Conservation Architects FKP

A campus since 1998, the Centre for Creative Arts and Media is based in a former Redemptorist Monastery, which originally opened in 1940 to accommodate students training for the priesthood.  Remnants of this heritage are still to be found - the high ceilings, wide windows and spacious rooms give the revamped building an instant appeal, while the library is constructed with Irish oak using a distinct ecclesiastical theme.

Today, the Centre for Creative Arts and Media is a hive of creative activity, and specializes in courses in art & design, textiles, and film & documentary.

De Blacam and Meagher GMIT Library School of Art.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis. 

Of all Irish architects, Noel Dowley is the one most associated with, as he puts it, creating ‘an architecture of modest means’. He has often discussed his use of humble materials, his taste for frugality – concerns well evident in the enchantingly inventive New Docks workshop, which fully fills its tiny 14m x 7m harbourfront site. Dowley used what author Brian Ward calls “bricolage architecture” using found objects such as sections of large drainage pipes as porthole windows.

One of the loveliest details, the line of the stairs climbing the external wall, came about fortuitously. ‘It was originally a pencil line, erased on the tracing paper negative,’ says Dowley, ‘but it still showed up as a shadow line on a print among the set of contract drawings, so they built it too!

Dowley’s petite, white, modernist structure has the sculptural presence to hold its own comfortably against the five-storey tower of Galway Bay Seafoods, formerly Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s Fish Processing Station, designed by Piaras Beaumont in the mid-1950s – itself the first-ever building to be commended in the RIAI Triennial Gold Medal awards. Dowley had trained with architect Louis Kahn in America in the 1970s and was also responsible for the modernist style of the former Telephone Exchange Building which was repurposed by Galway International Arts Festival as the Festival Gallery 2019. 

A Forgotten Gem for #AATE19!!

Open on a ‘first come’ basis. 

X-PO started life as a public art project by Deirdre O' Mahony. It sought to actively engage individuals and communities in Killinaboy in County Clare, by giving time and space to re-viewing and re-imagining the social and cultural priorities

The project was the 2007 artwork in Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks.

The space has evolved in an organic way over the last 12 years. It is now home to a multitude of activities including a singers’ group, a community mapping group, Irish language classes, art exhibitions, a film club, intimate concerts, field trips, heritage lectures and a skills share network amongst other things.

X-PO is now an intrinsic part of the social and cultural fabric of North Clare.

Folk Radio is a concept for a new artists-led, on-line radio station and digital sound archive, based at X-PO. Led by artist Tom Flanagan this community-based project seeks to engage the wider and existing communities active in and around X-PO, the former post office.  

Folk Radio will make a radio programme during the Architecture at the Edge weekend 2019, exploring ‘stories of adaptive reuse’, in the context of the local communities in the area.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis.  

The Galway Cottage, as featured on RTE’s ‘Home of the Year’ is a cleverly renovated and extended 1800’s cottage. Traditional cottage character merges with a light filled modern extension, boasting double height ceilings, traditional features and a bold colour scheme throughout. Tour led by Architectural Designer Stephen Walton and owner and Interior Designer Deirdre Noone.

The NUI Galway campus comprises a diverse mix of building from its different stages of development. This tour will investigate how the university is working to integrate, adapt, reuse and protect these buildings. An architect led tour will focus on four key projects which have recently been readapted or are soon to be refurbished;

The Historic Quadrangle

The award winning O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance

The James Hardiman Library

The Arts & Science Building

Tour led by ;

Eamon McCarney, Taylor McCarmey Architects; Tommy Rushe Scott Tallon Walker Architects; and Patrick Faherty Assistant Planning and Projects Officer at NUI Galway.

Enjoy a guided tour of Enniscoe House, which appears to be a classic Irish Georgian country house. One of its most interesting features is that it is an older house, described as a fortified house (c.1740-1750) that is perfectly preserved within the later house, which was completed in 1798. Tour will start from North Mayo Heritage Centre. 

12pm, 1.30pm & 2.30pm

Have you ever wondered what happens to your waste? Join this tour and find out!

Walsh waste invites visitors from across the county to come along and discover what happens at their waste management facilities.  Behind the scenes tours offer an insight into the entire integrated network of our recycling and recovery operations and the importance of disposing of your waste properly.

The former warehouse building of 1000 square meters offered Walsh Waste plenty of floor space and height to repurpose it into a combined repair and maintenance garage for the company’s fleet of trucks and machinery along with three floors of office space to house their head office. Architect Ciaran Tobin’s brief was to design a spacious and functional working environment for staff whilst delivering a welcoming aesthetic for clients. 

Tours of the facilities are conducted by the architect, the facility owners and their team. We can promise ‘it won’t be a rubbish day out!’

Tours 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm

Gort Convent of Mercy is an interesting and complex structure, having the form of a terraced town house to the front and a more typical convent form to the rear. The associated school building and foot bridge add further interest to the site. The Sisters of Mercy came to Gort in 1857, led by Sr Aloysius Doyle, a veteran of the Crimean war, establishing the convent in the pre-existing house.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis.  Tours 11.30am & 2.30pm

Renovation of a former Magdalene Laundry to re-purpose as a contemporary domestic refuge to a high standard, with nine self-contained spacious and quality apartments, shared social and crèche facilities crafted within the existing building. 

The scheme is currently under construction by Carey Building Contractors, and due for completion by the end of 2019. This tour will be led by SJK Architects and the Developers.

Modh Eile is a new home for Cope Galway’s Domestic Abuse Service.

No Disabled Access. This event is free, but pre booking via our website is essential.

Portumna Castle is a significant architectural monument representing an important stage in the evolution of Irish architecture during the transitional period of the early 17th century. In the castle yard east range a conservation project involved extensive works over a period 3 years and included safeguarding the building range against damage and structural failure.  The project has resulted in the provision of new tea rooms, reception, visitor facilities and exhibition area at Portumna Castle. 

Tours at 11.30 & 2.30

Open on a ‘first come’ basis.

Engage Art Studios (est 2004) has recently relocated to Churchfields, Lower Salthill. Transforming this former Christian Brothers monastery, school and chapel into an Art Gallery, Workshop and Artist Studios. Tours of the building will be offered which has preserved its original form and style. The simple formalised layout of the building is typical of religious complexes of the nineteenth century and this imposing street building continues to make an aesthetically pleasing and important architectural contribution to the locality.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis. 

Six decades after Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne arrived into a Co Galway railway station for the filming of John Ford’s The Quiet Man, a community campaign has seen the redevelopment of Ballyglunin Train Station which now provides a visitor experience celebrating the legacy of the film. This delightful former railway station not only represents an important element of the heritage of County Galway.

The station is also a meeting space, where the focus of discussion is on the possibilities for revitalization via other community driven initiatives.  Attendees to this event are invited to engage in a consultative process in the creation of other potential creative outcomes for the locality.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis. 

Tour of the historic planned town of Gort by local guides Sean & Noreen O’Connor who have researched how the town has adapted and changed its public and private buildings, and its public spaces to the ups and downs of events over the years with discussion on the way forward.

Open on a ‘first come’ basis.