Cloightheach (Round Tower)

According to the Annals of the Four Master, the round tower, along with ‘Eochaidh O’Cuim, the Chief Master’ who was inside it, was burned in 1156 (Moore 1874-9, 35-6). In the OS Letters (1839) it was noted that, ‘The Irish-speaking people here all call the tower Cloigtheach, and they say its bells are buried in a swamp a little to the west, since the time of Cromwell’ (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 45 (135)). The eight-storey round tower (H 31.5m; ext. basal diam. 4.7m; int. basal diam. 2.7m; int. top diam. 2m), which tapers as it rises, is constructed of roughly dressed coursed limestone (wall T at base c. 1m; at top c. 0.9m). It is well preserved, surviving up to and including the lower portion of its conical stone roof. Internally each level was accessed by a wooden ladder. According to the OS Letters (ibid. 44 (132)) the doorway, which is in the NE, is, ‘eleven feet three inches [3.42m] from the ground, looking more like a breach in the wall than a regular doorway. It was originally built up with brown gritstone, of which no specimens can, they say, be met with in this country. All these stones were carried away some few years ago by a neighbouring farmer of the name of Switzer, who told me himself that he thought that they were fire-proof, and that for that purpose he placed them at the back of his kitchen fire, where they soon flew to pieces’. The OS Letters also note several cracks in the tower which, together with the doorway surround, were subsequently repaired using cement by the Board of Works in 1881 (ibid.). The tower has nine windows in all, five of which are in the body of the tower and are, in ascending order, triangular-headed, two lintelled and two triangular-headed (Lalor (1999 (Reprint 2016), 169). The four triangular-headed bell-floor windows face the cardinal points. (National Monument no. 74) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 10 January 2017

The round tower at Cloightheach, Grangefertagh, was likely built between the 9th and 12th centuries by a monastic community, reflecting the early Christian tradition in Ireland. It is significant as a rare surviving example of its type, with historical records noting its destruction by fire in 1156 as recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters.