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Tuam.ie
County Galway · Connacht

About Tuam

Tuam is the second-largest town in County Galway, 30 km north-east of Galway city, with 9,647 people at the 2022 census. It grew from a sixth-century monastery, was the seat of the high kings of Ireland in the twelfth century, and has kept the market-town plan it was given in 1613: every street runs into the Square. Its motto is “Long live the people of Tuam”.

Population
9,647 (2022 census)
Where
30 km from Galway, 173 km from Dublin
Position
53.5138° N, 8.8528° W, 44 m above sea level
Eircode
H54 routing key · phone +353 (0)93
Governed
Tuam Municipal District, Galway County Council · Galway East constituency
Twinned with
Straubing, Germany
Largest employer
Valeo Vision Systems, with more than 1,000 staff
On the model
6,219 buildings, 77 streets, 230 places in 70 kinds
Plan of Tuam town centre, one kilometre across
St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Cathedral
Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Town Hall on the Square
The Town Hall on the Square
Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The O'Connor castle of 1164
The O'Connor castle of 1164
ClintMalpaso, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
St Jarlath's College
St Jarlath's College
Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. Bronze Age
    A burial ground by the river. People have lived here since the Bronze Age: ground beside what is now Shop Street was used as a burial place, and in 1875 workmen found a Bronze Age burial urn there.
  2. About 526
    Jarlath's monastery. Records from the early sixth century mention a monk called Jarlath at Cloonfush, 6 km west of the town.
  3. 1106 to 1156
    Seat of the High King. During Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair's fifty-year reign Tuam was the centre of provincial power and, from 1128, the seat of the High King of Ireland, a title he took by force of arms.
  4. 1164
    The first stone castle in Ireland. Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, the last native High King, had a "wonderful castle" built, with lofty walls and a deep moat fed by diverting the river.
  5. 1613
    A royal charter and the Square. On 30 March 1613 James I granted Tuam a charter: two members in the Irish House of Commons until 1801, and a council of a sovereign and twelve burgesses.
  6. 1860 to 1978
    The railway. Tuam station opened on 27 September 1860 on the Athenry to Sligo line.

The full history, 17 moments in order

What to see

  1. Temple Jarlath70 m

    On High Street, near the centre: the site of the monastery Jarlath founded about 526 to 527.

  2. The Mill Museum

    An undershot water-wheel corn mill off Shop Street, beside the River Nanny, with origins in the seventeenth century and in use until 1964.

  3. Cathedral of the Assumption370 m

    The Roman Catholic cathedral, built 1827 to 1837, seat of the Archdiocese of Tuam.

  4. St Mary's Cathedral160 m

    The Church of Ireland cathedral, built 1861 to 1878, incorporating a twelfth-century red sandstone chancel arch in Irish Romanesque style, a national monument, and a fourteenth-century chancel.

  5. The High Cross of Tuam171 m

    Erected in 1152, reputedly once the tallest in Ireland, though the top of its shaft is missing and its ringed head comes from a second cross.

  6. The Chair of Tuam

    The monument unveiled in 1980 marks where the town's sovereign was sworn in under the 1613 charter, believed to be within the surviving tower of Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair's 1164 castle.

All the things to see and do

Population since 1821

Census counts for the town. The fall through the nineteenth century, a low of 2,896 in 1901, and the climb since the 1990s are all in the line.

Population of Tuam by census2,4124,8247,23518211851190119511971200220229,647

Source: Wikipedia article 'Tuam', Historical populations template, citing CSO census figures (cso.ie/census); read 2026-09-18.

Questions people ask

Where is Tuam?
In the north of County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 30 km north-east of Galway city and 173 km west of Dublin, on the N17 to Collooney and the N83 from Galway, with the R332 and R347; the M17 motorway bypasses the town.
What does Tuam mean?
The name is cognate with the Latin tumulus, a burial mound. The old name Tuaim Dá Ghualann, the mound of two shoulders, probably refers to the high ground on either side of the River Nanny; a Bronze Age burial ground lay beside what is now Shop Street.
How big is Tuam?
9,647 people at the 2022 census, making it the second-largest settlement in County Galway. The town covers about 6.5 square kilometres at 44 m above sea level.
Why does Tuam have two cathedrals?
It has been an archbishopric since the Synod of Kells in 1152. The Cathedral of the Assumption (1827 to 1837) is the Roman Catholic seat; St Mary's (1861 to 1878) is the Church of Ireland cathedral, built around the twelfth-century arch of the first one.
What is Tuam known for?
Being the seat of the last high kings of Ireland in the twelfth century and of Ireland's first stone castle; the 1152 High Cross; Gaelic football (Tuam Stars and St Jarlath's College); the showbands of the 1960s and The Saw Doctors; and the Tuam Herald, County Galway's oldest newspaper.

Getting around

Tuam sits on the N17 to Collooney and the N83 from Galway, with the R332 and R347; the M17 motorway bypasses the town. The railway station on the Athenry to Sligo line closed in 1976 and the building still stands; Bus Éireann serves the town. Schools: St Jarlath's College, Archbishop McHale College and High Cross College (formed in 2023 from Presentation College and St Bridget's), with five main primary schools including Gaelscoil Iarfhlatha, an Irish-language school.

History, sights, civic facts and the schools summarise Wikipedia, "Tuam" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-18). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.