towers round ireland

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...

Blossom Gate. This is the only gate remaining from the medieval town wall of Kilmallock.
The Collegiate Church. The Round Tower of this church may have originally been part of an earlier monastery. The probably 13th century church has three aisles, a chancel and it’s south wall contains a 13th century door. It’s use as by the Church of Ireland had a bearing on the history of the Earls of Desmond; being the place where the ‘Sugan’ Earl surrendered in 1600 and where the 15th Earl attended a...

The old monastery was founded by St. Benan or Benignus, St. Patrick's successor at Armagh, and the land for it was given by the local chieftain, Lugaid, who had been baptised by St. Patrick. It was burned in 1114.

There are portions of a Round Tower with a round-headed doorway. The Franciscans founded a monastery here in 1428 and built the existing church which has a partly blocked-up trefoil-headed east window. A fragment of a Romanesque doorway indicates the former existence of a R...

In the 17th and 18th centuries Kinsale was an important English naval base. This is reflected in the architecture of the town which, with its 18th century flavour and a whiff of the distant southern shores reached by its mariners, makes Kinsale into the town with what, in my opinion, is the most individual character in the country. In the town and its surroundings are some interesting monuments. St. Multose Church: The present Church of Ireland Parish church, founded probably by de Cogan...

It is said that Saint Patrick founded the first monastery here, and it was to there that the tithes from all of Munster were collected for Armagh. Only the stump of a Round Tower and a church remain, both probably dating from the 12th century. The site offers a great view of the County....

St. Senan, who died in 544, founded his monastery here in the first half of the 6th century. One of his pupils was St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise. The monastery was ravaged by the Vikings in 816 and again in 835, and was probably even occupied by them from 972 to 975, but was recaptured by Brian Boru. The most conspicuous part of the old monastery is the Round Tower, 120 feet high, which is unusual in that the door is at ground level.

Just to the east of the tower is the Cathedral, a chu...

An old monastic site associated with St. Patrick. There are remains of a Round Tower, which may never have been finished. It has a square-headed doorway and the holes used for scaffolding on it were never blocked up. Nearby is a 15th century parish church.

The semicircular wall surrounding the buildings obviously incorporates the old monastic cashel or surrounding wall. East of the church, and about 100 yards from the sea, there is a passage inside the wall which has an unusual poin...

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 rectangular church, possibly of c. 1200, and the now-featureless Round Tower (reduced to a stump in a storm around 1710) both probably belonged to a monastery founded by St. Domangart of Donard in the 6th century on a site probably now occupied by Maghera Church of Ireland church. Excavations in 1965 provided evidence of occupation near the tower during the Early Christian period....