[1] The village was an important centre in the Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon Christian world in the seventh and eighth centuries.

St. Colmán, Bishop of Lindisfarne, founded a monastery here for a group of Saxon monks, called the School of Mayo.

[2] Finally Turgesius completely destroyed it in 818 [2] The village was the centre of the diocese of Mayo from 1152.

[3] One of its bishops, Patrick O'Hely, who died in 1589, is numbered among the Irish martyr saints.

[3] The BBC four-part documentary Amongst Women was filmed in Mayo Abbey using the Old Catholic Church, the graveyard and the post office/shop.