Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=14713.
Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.
A tall, well constructed round tower, built principally from local limestone but with some sandstone detailing around the doorway.
The monastery is said to be a Patrician foundation. Some restoration work was carried out on the tower in 1841 by a local landowner. Part of the cap of the tower was replaced by the Board of Works in 1871 when the monuments at the site came under their care.
Whilst the crucifixion plaque is open to some chronological doubt, the heads flanking either side of the tower are very Romanesque in character, although their location is almost without parallel (see however the round tower at Kells, Co. Meath which has what may be a very worn head in similar position).
44th Report of the Commissioners of Public Works
Barrow, L., The Round Towers of Ireland (Dublin, 1979) 162-66
Champneys, A., The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dulin, 1911) 48, 59, 236
Petrie, G., The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland (Dublin, 1845) 404-5
Wilde, W., Boyne and Blackwater (Dublin, 1849) 136-8
