What is recorded here

Thirty-three metres of granite and limestone rise beside St. Brigid's Cathedral in County Kildare, their seven floors leaning slightly against the sky. A red sandstone doorway, carved with chevrons and rosettes, waits four metres above the grass, while narrow windows pierce the upper stone like quiet eyes. The tower has watched Kildare through centuries of rain and reverence, its round body unbroken though battlements were later added. It does not demand attention; it simply continues, turning the ordinary edge of the graveyard into a place where time itself seems to hold its breath.

In the NW sector of a graveyard (KD022-029003-), c. 30m NW of St. Brigid's Cathedral (KD022-029020-). According to Bradley et al. (1986 Vol 3, 222), the base and lower courses of the tower are built of evenly coursed granite blocks, with roughly coursed limestone blocks above (H. 32.6m; diam. 5.3m). There are seven floors; five supported on corbels, with the third and sixth on offsets. The red sandstone Romanesque doorway faces SE (H. above ground level 4.6m), and is of four orders (the outermost order is modern) with a gable above. The ornament includes chevrons, rosettes and foliation. There are narrow pointed splayed windows on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, and five windows, each partially blocked at the base, on the top floor. Battlements were added in the 18th century. (Fitzgerald 1891-5, 76, 86-91; De Paor 1967, 137; Barrow 1979, 118-122) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 24 January 2012

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