towers round ireland

The stump of a Round Tower which is preserved up to the third floor. The round-headed doorway is unusual in that it is only about a foot above the ground. The original monastery was founded by St. Mochua, who was adopted, reared and educated by St. Comghall of Bangor and who died in 637. The monastery was destroyed by fire in 1179....

A well-preserved round Tower which is lower and fatter than most examples. It had a round-headed doorway (now blocked up), and flat - and gable-headed windows. The church beside it, although built in the 18th century, incorporates a 16th century mullioned window and a small plaque with the Crucifixion dated 1625. The first church here was founded by St. Patrick and, because of this, the Archbishops of Armagh long claimed jurisdiction over it. But in 1351 the Pope authorised the Archbishop of...

The monastery at Kells would appear to have been first founded in 804 by monks from St. Colmcille's foundation at Iona who were fleeing from the Viking invasions and seeking a safer place for their treasures. In 877 reliquaries of the saint were transferred to Kells. The monastery was raided by the Vikings in 919, 950 and 969.

The greatest treasure of the monastery - the Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin - which had possibly been written here in the early 9th century, wa...

the church is alleged to have been founded by St. Patrick, but it is more likely that it was his disciple Lughaidh (died 515-16) who founded the monastery. St. Ronan, who cursed Suibhne Geilt and caused him to go mad, was abbot here and died of the great plague in 664. The High King, Aedh Finnlaigh, died here in 876. The monastery was plundered by the Irish in 908, by the Danes in 978 and again by the Irish in 1043. The Round Tower and a High Cross still survive from the old monastery. The...

St. Patrick is said to have founded the first monastery here. There is a well preserved Round Tower, which lacks its top windows. It is to be suspected that these originally existed, but were not included in the restoration works when the conical cap was replaced about 150 years ago.

The tower is unusual in that there is a Crucifixion about the round-headed doorway, and there are heads beside the arch. The nearby church was built in the 15th century, but it replaces a Romanesque c...

An early Christian monastery was founded here by St. Colman Mac Lenen who died around 600, but all its buildings were burned in 1137. The cathedral of the present Church of Ireland Diocese was started around 1250, but because of much modernisation, comparatively little of this early church can be seen. The chancel has been heavily modernised; the chancel arch was blocked up in 1705 and removed completely in 1775. The east window was inserted in1856. The Cathedral's most famous Bishop was George...

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...

The only remnant of the early monastery founded by St. Mochua (died 657) is a very well-preserved Round Tower, 96 feet high. It is one of the fattest Round Towers in the country. It is unique in that it has a double Romanesque doorway with fine ornamentation including heads with intertwined hair. Bring a pair of binoculars with you to see the detail, as it is high up off the ground. There is also a Romanesque window in the their floor. The dearths of monks in the old monastery are reported...

A fine Round Tower with a round-headed splaying doorway and with flat-headed and pointed windows, but its conical cap is missing. At the foot of the tower is an old Irish cross-slab bearing interlacing ornament and the old Irish inscription OR DO GRICOUR (last two letters doubtful) meaning 'A prayer for Gricour'....