Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1902-03-15
ROUND TOWERS.
IreIand's Mute Wonders Are q
Puzzle to the Anti
quarians.
When, Why and BY Whom They
Were Built Is Only
Conjecture.
Relics of Prehistoric Architect
ure Ante-Dating All
Records.
NEGLECTED AND CRUMDLING TO RUIN

The 120 round towers of Ireland are
still mystery to the antiquarians. When
they were built, by whom and for what
is as far from solution as ever, despite the
researches of students of antiquity.
Though varying in size and height, all
the towers are of the same plan, design,
material and structure. Authentic re-
search l,400 years back only develops
that the round towers were there then as
now, but not even a clew has been dis
covered as to their origin or purpose.
They are located near the crumbled ruins
of churches and castles of the sixth and
seventh centuries, and are in far better
state of preservation, proving them to he
Of superior structure and workmanship.
Some are attached to ruins of churches or
monasteries or castles, but are known to
ante-date all those structures. In style
of architecture and construction they are
alone, nothing similar being found in the
ruins or history of any other part of the
world, except two round towers in the
plan of the monastery of st. Gall in
Switzerland, founded by Irish monks.
Giraldus Cambrensis, who landed in
Ireland few years after the English in
vasion in the twelfth century, called them
Ecclesiastical towers which, after the
fashion of the country, are slender, high
and round"
The claim of Molyneaux that they
were built by the Danes is disproven by
the fact that no such architecture is
found in Denmark nor in the parts of
France, England and Scotland which the
Danes also occupied in their conquests;
then the Danes were ravagers and plum
derers, destroying but never erecting any
buildings or forts; besides it has been
fully established that the round towers
were in Ireland before the Danes, and
their massive and solid construction
probably accounts for their not being de-
stroyed by the invaders
The late DR.. George Petrie, the most
distinguished Irish antiquarian who has
investigated, is of the opinion that the
round towers were the work of Christian
architects from the sixth to the tenth
century, and that they were used: O. as
belfries; (2) as strongholds or houses
into which in times of danger the people
could retreat; and (S) as watch-towers
and beacons. His work was published
in 1915. In its preparation he had the
aid of the best Celtic scholars of the day,
and it is admitted that this work contains
more solid information on the antiquities
of Ireland than any other ever published.
OF the remains of some one hundred
and twenty round towers to be seen in
Ireland at the present day few of them
can be said to be perfect. One at Drum
keen, County Louth, is 1870 feet high;
that at Fertagh, County Kilkenny, ll2
feet high; Kilmacduagh, County Cal
way; Monasterboice, County Louth, and
Kildare, are each 10 feet high; the one
at Kells. County Meath. measures 80
feet; Cloyne, County Cork, is 92 feet;
Devenish, County Fermanagh, rs feet;
Teghadow, County Kildare, II feet;
hChhCthi OOuhAJ OOAAl ~ ASCb, SoohCAi
County Tipperary, So feet; Kilcullen,
County Kildare. 40 feet. The lowest is
at Oughterard, County kildare, measur-
ing only % feet in height.
The one at Swords, County Dublin, is
95 feet high, with circumference of So
feet, the walls being feet inches in
thickness. 1t stands close by the site of
an ancient monastery founded by ST.
COLUMBIA in 5l2, and with which the
round tower was supposed to be coeval.
1t was to this monastery that the body
of Brian Boru was brought after the bat
tie of Clontarf.
The most perfect of the round towers
is at Antrim. 1t stands 80 feet high and
is built on solid rock. The door, seven
feet above the ground, is toward the
north. 1t is two feet wide and FIVE feet
high. There are four openings toward
the top. corresponding to the four cardi-
nal points of the compass. 1t is hollow,
as they all are, to the bottom. 1t is