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Cloigtheach — the bell house

Round towers of Ireland

Tall, tapering, and older than any castle in the country: the round tower is the one building the world recognises as Irish. Ireland has the survivors of well over sixty, with two in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man, and almost nothing like them anywhere else.

What they are

The Irish name says what they were for. Cloigtheach means bell house, and they were the bell towers of the early medieval monasteries — the bell rung by hand from the top, the tower always standing near a church, with its door facing the church's west doorway. That rule is so reliable that where a tower survives and the church does not, the position of the lost church can be worked out without digging.

The door is usually well above the ground, which is where the popular story comes from: that the monks climbed in and pulled the ladder up when the Vikings came. They may well have. The towers also kept the monastery's valuables, and a raised door on a building full of treasure needs no Vikings to explain it. What they were built as, first and foremost, was a bell tower and a landmark — a sign, visible for miles, that here was a house of God.

Most were built between the tenth and twelfth centuries. They were built to last, and did: the complete ones still stand around thirty metres, Ardmore in Waterford with a noticeable lean and three string-courses, Antrim locally known simply as The Steeple. The list below follows George Lennox Barrow's 1979 survey of every surviving tower, with its condition and height.

Sources: Wikipedia — Irish round tower ↗ · G. L. Barrow, The Round Towers of Ireland (1979), via the same article's survey table

The round towers, county by county

County Antrim · Aontroim · 3

Antrim, County Antrim
Photograph: Brian Shaw · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Antrim

Complete 28 m location not documented Wikipedia ↗

Built around 10th century.Its main entrance is 2 m above the ground, suggesting that it was used as protection. The site of the monastery was burned down in 1147. It is locally known as The Steeple.

County Carlow · Ceatharlach · 1

County Cavan · An Cabhán · 1

County Clare · An Clár · 5

Mollaneen, County Clare
Photograph: Scummy at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Mollaneen

Incomplete 15 m location not documented Wikipedia ↗

Round tower at Mollaneen, County Clare — incomplete, 15 metres.

County Cork · Corcaigh · 2

County Donegal · Dún na nGall · 1

County Down · An Dún · 3

County Dublin · Baile Átha Cliath · 4

County Fermanagh · Fear Manach · 2

County Galway · Gaillimh · 6

Kilmacduagh, County Galway
Photograph: Jerzy Strzelecki · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Kilmacduagh

Complete 34.5 m 53.049, -8.887 ↗ Wikipedia ↗

The tallest standing of the ancient round towers. It has 11 windows (more than any other tower) and the door is 8 m from the ground (higher than any other tower). Leans 1.02 m from the vertical.

County Kerry · Ciarraí · 2

County Kildare · Cill Dara · 6

County Kilkenny · Cill Chainnigh · 5

County Laois · Laois · 1

County Limerick · Luimneach · 3

Ardpatrick, County Limerick
Photograph: GothmogLord · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ardpatrick

Incomplete 3 m 52.341, -8.525 ↗ Wikipedia ↗

Barrow states that the Down Survey of 1655 marks the site with a tower of 3 stories with a broken top. Fitzgerald and McGreggor writing in 1826 state that it was a fine tower that "fell a few years since". A 3 m stump surrounded by rubble from its collapse is all that remains. Barrow speculates that some of the stones from the tower were used to build the nearby wall surrounding the cemetery, including one 1.07 m long with a raised moulding at the top of the entrance that may have been the sill stone from the tower's doorway.

County Derry / Londonderry · Doire · 1

Derry, County Derry / Londonderry
Photograph: Wanfried-Dublin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Derry

Incomplete 5.5 m location not documented Wikipedia ↗

Barrow states that a tower known as "The Long Tower" once stood in the city of Derry at the site occupied since 1784–1786 by St Columba's Church, Long Tower The Long Tower was said to have survived the siege of 1689 but seemed to have disappeared. In 2018, the remains of the missing tower were identified in the grounds of Lumen Christi College, as a ruin previously believed to have been a windmill. The OS of County Londonderry of 1837 Has the following: "In the charter of Derry it is called Columb kille's Tower in Raven's plan of the city in 1621 it appears as a very high and slender belfry....In the popular traditions of Derry and its vicinity this tower is still invariably spoken of as a lofty round tower built by St Columb himself and many legends are current of its miracle working silver bell"

County Louth · Lú · 3

County Mayo · Maigh Eo · 5

County Meath · An Mhí · 2

County Monaghan · Muineachán · 2

County Offaly · Uíbh Fhailí · 2

County Roscommon · Ros Comáin · 1

County Sligo · Sligeach · 1

County Tipperary · Tiobraid Árann · 3

County Waterford · Port Láirge · 1

County Wicklow · Cill Mhantáin · 1

The list, with each tower's condition and height, follows the survey table in Wikipedia's Irish round tower article after Barrow (1979); pins are Wikipedia's coordinates for each place. Nothing here is a guide to access — many of these stand on private land.

Quick answers
What were Irish round towers for?

Bell towers. The Irish word cloigtheach means bell house, and every one stands beside a church or monastery with its door facing the church. They also stored valuables and may have served as refuges, the raised doors suggest it, but they were built as bell towers first.

How many round towers are there in Ireland?

67 survive in some form on this list, following Barrow's 1979 survey — 24 of them complete or complete to the cornice, the rest stumps and partial towers. Two more stand in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man.

What is the tallest round tower in Ireland?

Kilmacduagh in County Galway, at 34.5 metres, is the tallest on this list.

Why is the door of a round tower so high up?

Nobody is certain. Defence is the traditional answer (climb in, pull up the ladder) and it may be right; a raised door also protects whatever was stored inside, and helps the structure, since a doorway at the base weakens a tall tower where it bears the most weight.

When were round towers built?

Mostly between the tenth and twelfth centuries, in the great age of the Irish monasteries, before the Normans arrived in 1169 and brought the castle with them.

The other monuments

High crossesPassage tombs & cairnsDolmensStone circlesHoly wellsOgham stones The castles The myths set in them

Know one that is missing? Thousands of round towers have no article and no pin — a townland name and a rough location is enough to start.

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