towers historical ireland

A spectacular group of medieval buildings set on an outcrop of limestone in the Golden Vale including the 12th century round tower, High Cross and Romanesque Chapel, 13th century Gothic cathedral, 15th century castle and the restored Hall of the Vicars.

Features include an audio visual show entitled "Strongholds of Faith", which is available in English, French, Italian and German as well as various other exhibitions.

Please note that this is a very busy site and visitors m...

On the outskirts of Limavady stands Sampson's Tower which was erected by public subscription in memory of Arthur Sampson who died in 1859. He was a former great agent for the landowners, the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers.

Please phone Limavady TIC for further details as the property above is private....

St Columb's college in Bishop Street is the site of the ancient Round Tower and it is thought to date from St Columb's time. It was initially built as a windmill. The tower is noted in historic memoirs of the Siege in 1689 as being a ruin then but exact dates of origin have never been fully established. It now stands beside a fine old purpose built college surrounded by beautiful gardens.

Open: Monday - Sunday: 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

Location: In the ground of St Columb's C...

Sandycove's main tourist attraction, the Martello Tower where James Joyce spent a week in 1904, with his friend, Oliver St John Gogarty, an experience which gave him the opening chapter of Ulysses. The 15-minute walk to the tower will take you along the seafront with its terraces of victorian and more modern houses, and past a small park, where lines from Ulysses are inscribed in a granite boulder....

A medieval looking exhibition tower peering over the walls at Shipquay Gate is an agreeable fake on the site of Sir Cahir O'Doherty's long vanished castle. The tower is at the centre of a new 'heritage village' and is a focal point for O'Doherty clan gatherings....

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....

The Westgate Tower combines with the ancient and historic Selskar Abbey to be the perfect setting to understand the historical development of Wexford. Situated in the heart of the Viking and Norman walled town, the Tower features a top-class audio-visual story on the cosmopolitan history of Wexford town, with spectacular special effects.

Upstairs in the tower there are beautiful Norman rooms and a fine battlements walk to the Abbey. Average length of visit is 1 hour approx....

The Round Tower of Timahoe looks spectacular at night as it is lit up. Situated on the edge of the attractive village of Timahoe, the round Tower is 30m tall and 17m in circumference, it is the biggest tower in Ireland and is situated on the site of a bronze age settlement....

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

Just north of Lahinch, on the coast of West Clare, are the famous Cliffs of Moher, defiantly standing as giant natural ramparts (over 200m high) against the agressive might of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cliffs of Moher (the Great Wall of Thomond) and O'Brien's Tower, which stands out on a headland, shows the extent of the O'Brien influence on the history of the Celtic Tribes. The Cliffs are 8km long and 214m high. It is there that one can most easily get a feel for the wildness of the terr...