The round tower stands as a unique symbol of Gaelic Ireland, with fine examples, such as that at Glendalough, Co Wicklow, dotted throughout the island. They are an enduring legacy of inspired design and of the craft of stoneworkers. There are outstanding examples of round towers from Cloyne in east Cork to Antrim in Northern Ireland. These beautiful remains, sometimes well intact, are becoming of more and more of interest to tourists, making the round tower trail a potential goldmine for our tourism industry.
From the Collins Press in Cork - one of the smaller and more interesting publishing houses - comes a timely publication on round towers which will be of keen interest to scholars and amateurs alike. It is called The Irish Round Tower - Origins and Architecture Explored.
The remains of more than 70 early Christian and medieval round towers survive in Ireland - widely distributed throughout the island, with the bulk of them located north of the Dingle Peninsula and south of Lough Neagh.
"They represent the only form of architecture which is unique to Ireland. Many of those that remain are in association with surviving monastic settlements and are sited in some of the most beautiful and historic areas of the country", the preamble to the book tells us.
The author, Brian Lalor, has also written the Blue Guide to Ireland, The Laugh of Lost Men, An Irish Journey and West of West. He is an award-winning architect.
In colour, the front cover shows a jet stream in the gathering gloom above the round tower at Rattoo, Co Kerry. On the back, the tower at Glendalough is portrayed through a portal. The book is arranged on a county by county basis and gives the reader an opportunity to find the towers in his or her vicinity. In his introduction Lalor quotes Heinrich Boll: "A cup of tea at dawn while standing shivering in the west wind, the isle of saints still hiding from the sun in the morning mist. Here on this island, then, live the only people in Europe that never set out to conquer, although they were conquered several times by Danes, Normans, Englishmen - all they sent out was priests, monks, missionaries, who, by way of this strange detour via Ireland, brought the spirit of Thebaic asceticism to Europe. "Here, more than a thousand years ago, so far from the centre of things, as if it had slipped way out into the Atlantic, lay the glowing heart of Europe." Boll was writing in his Irish Journal of 1957. Boll (19171985) was a German infantryman in the second World War before turning his mind to full-time writing. In 1972, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The north-west and the south-west have the least number of sites. The towers followed the general distribution pattern of the early medieval monasteries. The greatest cluster of sites, both surviving and vestigial, is to be found east of the Shannon.
As an example of how this book can be a useful guide, take some of the reference to the Cloyne tower in east Cork.
"Cloyne is an exceptionally fine and well preserved round tower, lacking its cap which has been replaced by a parapet with battlements to which there is access.
"The tower was damaged by lightning on January 10th, 1749, but the cap was already missing at that date. It is still in use as the cathedral belfry with a bell of 1857."
There are accompanying photographs and much more data besides on this tower and many others, including majestic Glendalough. Brian Lalor has brought scholarship to bear in a most readable way. The book, running to more than 200 pages, will be valued by visitors and by people with only a slight interest in our ancient past.