Ardmore Round Tower

Located towards the top of a N-facing slope with a N-S ravine to the E. Unusually, it is situated S of the Cathedral (WA040-008002-), the principal church within the graveyard (WA040-008008-), rather than to the SW, which leads O’Keeffe (1992, 81-5) to suggest that the tower may predate the cathedral (WA040-008002-) and relate to a now missing church.

This is a 12th-century round tower (diam. at base 5m; H c. 29m) with a cut-stone plinth and four of floors; the upper three floors are recessed externally with a string course (diam. at top 3.05m). A round-arched doorway (H c. 1.76m; Wth at base c. 0.7m), about 4m above ground level, is decorated by a continuous roll-moulding. The tower has three small lights and there are four windows, one at each of the cardinal points of the compass, beneath the cap which is surmounted by a modern cross. Internally there are sixteen corbels to support wooden floors, five of which are carved with grotesque faces.

The tower was conserved in the 1840s by Mr. Odell, a local landowner, when a truncated inhumation was discovered inside the tower (J.C. 1914). The original capstone is now inside the N doorway of the Cathedral (WA040-008002-) (Anon. 1867, 72). Excavation in 1996 (Lynch 1997) revealed a solid base of stone beneath the plinth and some recent burials. The tower was recently reconserved. (Power 1898b, 158-9; Power 1932, 20-2; Westropp 1903, 362-6; Barrow 1979, 192- 5; Harbison 1992b, 324-5; Lalor 1999, 225-7)

Anon. (1867) Proceedings. JRSAI, vol. 9, 1010, 69-73, 101-109, 205-220.