Killaloe Cathedral, Anglican cathedral and national monument in Killaloe, Ireland.
Killaloe Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Flannan, is a cruciform stone building without side aisles, completed in 1225 at the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. A tower rises over the crossing, and a 12th-century Romanesque doorway is set into the south-west corner of the nave. On the north side stands a small stone-roofed oratory, earlier than the cathedral.
The cathedral was built in the 13th century on a site where Christian worship had already been practiced for several hundred years. Killaloe was a bishop's seat for a long period, which gave the town a central role in the medieval Church in Ireland.
Inside the cathedral, a stone carved with both Ogham script and Viking runes stands as a reminder of the different peoples who once met in this part of Ireland. Few places in the country display these two writing systems side by side on a single object.
The cathedral sits in the center of Killaloe and is easy to find from the main street. The grounds have uneven stone surfaces, so sturdy shoes are a good idea.
The small stone-roofed chapel north of the cathedral predates it and may be the original sanctuary of Saint Molua, who founded the abbey and died around 609. It measures about 8.8 by 5.3 metres and has a belfry and doorways at its east and west ends.
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