castledermot round tower crosses and church

Round Tower and Crosses: St. Dermot founded a monastery here which was plundered by the Vikings in 841 and again in 867. Cormac Mac Cuilleannain, the famous scholar, King and Bishop of Cashel, was buried here after his head had been cut off in battle in 908. the monastery was plundered in 1048, and the last known abbot of the monastery died in 1073. Between the entrance gate and the church is a reconstructed Romanesque doorway belonging to a vanished church. The Round Tower was built with irregular granite blocks, but the top part is medieval.

There are two fine granite crosses and the base of a third. On the west face of the South Cross can be seen the Arrest of Christ, the Crucifixion, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Adam and Eve and Daniel in the Lion's Den; other panels on the cross have other less decipherable figures and geometrical decoration. On the North Cross there is the Temptation of St. Anthony, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Adam and Eve, David with the Harp, the Sacrifice of Isaac on the west face and the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes on the south face.