towers historical ireland

A Round Tower on a point at the entrance to the seaport, looking exactly like one of Ireland's medieval monastic towers is 92 ft high and built of granite. It commemorates James Chaine MP 'father of the port' who (as the inscription says) linked Larne with the United States.

On the Curran point, where the Stone Age flint implements may still be found, stands the shell of Olderfleet Castle, a 13th century ruin.

The construction of the famous Antrim Coast Road is explained a...

Tomregan Round Tower (4km south) provided the carved stone with a human head which now adorns the 17th century....

When the local O'Doherty family built a castle in Derry for their overlords the O' Donnells, probably around 1500, it may well have been thought that a new beginning was about to be made. The recently-built O'Doherty Tower is a modern attempt to commemorate that medieval association....

A 40 foot mote, originally topped by a wooden tower and dating to the early 13th century. It is said Cromwell positioned cannon on it during the ill fated siege of Callan in 1649....

A well-preserved Round Tower, which stands to a height of 92 feet, though the conical cap was reset after the tower was struck by lightening in 1819. It has one unique feature: a ringed cross carved in relief on a stone above the lintel of the doorway on the north-eastern portion of the tower. The cross does not help us to date the tower which, however, is likely to have been built in the 10th or 11th century. Together with a large bullaun stone nearby, it is the only monumental survivor of a...

The foundation of the first monastery is attributed to St. Cronan, otherwise called Mo-Chua, who lived possibly in the 6th century. The monastery is first mentioned in 776.
It was plundered by the Vikings in 832. In 1076 the southern half of Ireland demanded the expulsion of O'Ronain from the abbacy as it was claimed that he held it against the rightful abbot.

This probably means that the monastery had fallen into lay hands by that time. The most important remnant of the monaste...

Clones Round Tower, High Cross and Church The round tower is 75 feet, with a square headed doors and windows. Nearby is a shrine known as "St. Tighernach's shrine," which is carved out of stone. The shrine is named after St. Tighernach who founded a monastery in Clones in the 6th century, which the tower, cross and church belonged.

The cross is in two parts which did not belong together originally. On one side are the sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the Lions' Den and Adam and Eve. On th...

The modern road cuts through a monastery founded by St Cronan who died between 600 and 620....

The Tower Museum tells the story of Derry, chronicling the history of the city from its geological formation through to the present day. There are special features on Celtic Monasticism, the Plantation and the Siege of Derry....

This tower was built in the 1300's and is the only remaining part of the old Abbey, which was once here and the Chapel of which Brian Boru was waked after his death in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014....