2026/08/05

Anything but beauty

Three storey stone house painted white.  The roof has mostly caved in, there are weeds (currently in flower) in what's left of the guttering and windowsills,  and the hoardings outside have graffiti about The Bish (a local boys secondary school)

Normally I share pictures which have a (slight) streak of beauty about them.  This has nothing of the sort.

But I was drawn to this now-abandoned building  which has got progressively more decayed every year since I've lived in this city.  You could even call it anti-beauty.

Known as Canavan House it is located at the city end of Nun's Island in Galway city.  In the early 20-noughties it was home to the Galway Centre For Unemployed /  Galway Peoples Resource Centre.  Eventually they closed or moved, and plans to convert it to a boutique hotel never got off the ground.   

Since then nature has been working hard to take over the site.  Now, even the hoardings look like they need protective covers, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a tree rising up through the roof space one day.

Thank you!

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