Ballindoon Abbey, on the shores of Lough Arrow in Co Sligo, is in danger of collapsing unless vital conservation work is carried out, according to a local campaign group, the Friends of Ballindoon Abbey Committee.

The group was formed to address the perilous existence of the 500-year-old Dominican abbey. "We want to highlight the position of the abbey, which is extremely important from an historical point of view. If it were to collapse we would have lost a unique building," chairman of the committee Austin McTiernan told The Irish Times.

McTiernan said that campaigners want to preserve the abbey because of its "great architectural significance". He described the Abbey as "one of a kind" and said its loss would be a travesty for local heritage.

The abbey was built in 1507 by the McDonagh clan for the Dominican order and it has been used as a burial site in recent years.

According to the campaign committee, the graves around and inside the abbey have caused structural damage to the foundations of the building, and rainfall is continuing to disintegrate the mortar which is vital to the survival of the chancel tower and the rare, two-storey, triple-arched rood screen that separates the chancel and the nave.

Difficulties arise over the abbey's conservation because of uncertainty about its ownership. The abbey originally belonged to the Ballindoon estate of the King family from Rockingham, but when the estate was fragmented and the ownership of land was redistributed in the 1940s, the site of the abbey was never sold and it got lost in the deeds system of conveyancy. "Now the abbey is in a no-man's land and nobody wants to claim ownership of it," said McTiernan.

The Friends of Ballindoon Abbey Committee is campaigning for the abbey to be taken over by a public body so that conservation work can begin.

Sligo County Council manages the burials at the graveyard of Ballindoon Abbey but it has no legal responsibility for the building.

The county council's heritage office said it has recently met with representatives of the committee and that it is committed to assisting it wherever possible.

The council is seeking legal advice with regard to the ownership of the Abbey and the heritage office said it considers the conservation of Ballindoon Abbey as "worthwhile".

The committee has organised a seminar to mark the fifth centenary of the abbey, to be held in Cromleach Lodge Hotel on Saturday, September 1st, as part of Heritage Week.