Cloyne Round Tower, Irish round tower in Cloyne, Ireland
Cloyne Round Tower is a sandstone structure standing in a monastic complex in County Cork, rising to approximately 30 meters in height. The cylindrical building is narrow and tapered, with nine window openings distributed across seven internal levels, characteristic of medieval Irish round towers.
A religious community was established around the year 560 when Saint Colman founded the monastic settlement at this location. The tower itself was built later, approximately in the 10th century, as a major structure for the monastery.
For centuries, the tower played a central role in monastic life and served the community as a bell tower, refuge, and storage place for sacred manuscripts. It remains a symbol of how medieval religious settlements shaped the landscape and daily routines of the area.
The tower can be viewed from outside along Church Street, where you have a clear view of the structure from across the cathedral. You can easily access it on foot from the nearby town center of Cloyne.
During an excavation in 1841, the Munster Antiquarian Society discovered three human skeletons inside the tower. This finding offers clues about who may have lived or taken shelter within this structure.
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