Round Tower — Clondalkin

The round tower and the monastery of Clondalkin (Chluain Dolcáin/Dolcáin's Meadow) was described in the Urban Survey of Dublin (Bradley and King 1988, 215-24) as follows; 'The origins of the settlement of Clondalkin lie in the Early Christian period with the foundation of a monastery there in the seventh century by St Mochua (Cronan) (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 31). Abbots are first mentioned in the annals during the eighth century and it is recorded that the relics of Mochua were translated here in 789. The monastery was sufficiently important to be plundered by the Vikings in 833 and shortly afterwards Clondalkin became a base for Viking activities in the area. Little is known of this period of Clondalkin's history, which, is potentially significant archaeologically because it appears to be one of the few recorded Viking rural settlement sites. A fort was established by Olaf the White, the first Norwegian king of Dublin. It is recorded only once in the annals, when it was attacked and captured in 867 by two Leinster chieftains: "Amlaib's fort at Cluain Dolcain [Clondalkin] was burned by Gaithine's son and Mael Ciarain son of Ronan, and the aforesaid commanders caused a slaughter of a hundred of the leaders of the foreigners in the vicinity of Cluain Dolcain on the same day" (MacNiocaill 1983, 323). The implication of this entry is that there was also Viking settlement in the vicinity of Clondalkin but unfortunately the exact whereabouts of the fort itself is unknown. The Vikings may simply have taken over the early monastery and fortified it as they seem to have done elsewhere, at St. Mullin's [CW026-011----] and Monasterboice [LH021-062001-] for instance. It is equally possible, of course, that the Viking fort was simply located close to the monastery and the nearby placename Raheen may be significant in this regard (Ua Broin 1942, 206). Unfortunately the reference remains rather enigmatic and it is unknown whether the Vikings returned to settle here in the tenth century or not. It is of interest, however, to note the tradition that the church lands of Clondalkin were given to the archdiocese by the MacGilla Mocholmog family, who were vassals of the later Norse kings of Dublin (White 1959, no 111). The monastery was burned in 1071 but in 1077 it was the subject of a struggle between rival factions for control of the abbacy which; resulted in the granting of the church to the Célí Dé (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 31). Like the other Célí Dé monasteries of Tallaght [DU021-037002-] and Finglas [DU014-066----] the lands became part of the see lands of the diocese of Dublin. According to the Down Survey of 1657 there stood at Clondalkin then only the stump of a castle, some thatched houses and the round tower, which was described as a high watch tower (Ball 1902-20, iv, 117-18). This is situated beside the road, opposite the churchyard. It is complete with conical cap and internally there are floors and ladders complete to the top; these were inserted sometime between 1783 and 1827 (Barrow 1979, 80). There is a bulging base, probably added in the eighteenth which has steps cut into it up to the doorway. The masonry consists of calp limestone with some granites. The doorway, which is lintelled, is of granite. There were five storeys originally but the remodel ling ignored the position of two of these and consequently there are now only four. There are four windows in the top storey facing the cardinal points'. On the W side of Tower Road opposite St. John's Anglican Church and graveyard is a round tower. Originally it stood five storeys high with a conical cap (dims. H 26m; int. diam. 2.2m; wall T 0.86m). Built of coursed calp limestone with a granite finish on the door and window jambs. The base of the tower was cased in the 18th-century (Sherlock 1906, 10; Barrow 1975, 61-64). Access to first floor is from external steps through a lintelled doorway in the E face. Floors are lit by small square-headed opes and four larger rectangular windows facing the cardinal points on the top floor. Pre-development testing near the round tower in 2003 produced one sherd of medieval cooking ware in a disturbed context (Opie 2006, 113). Clondalkin round tower was described by Lalor (1999, 133-7) as; 'four of these towers, three of which are substantially intact, are early examples, probably early 11th century. From an analysis of the door and window forms of Clondalkin, Lusk [DU008-010003-] and Swords [DU011-034005-], and from 19th-century drawings of the demolished St. Michael le Pole [DU018-020083-], it can be seen that they all belong to the early phase of lintelled opening, which preceded the arched doorways and towers with Romanesque decoration. Rathmichael [DU026-050004-] is a mere stub, but since it is associated with a small single-cell church, it also probably belongs to the same period. Clondalkin is the finest and only complete tower in the Dublin area, and is doubly important for the fact that it is the only complete tower which has not had its cap reconstructed or re-set during the intensive conservation work carried out by public and private bodies on Round Towers during the late 19th century. The angle of the cap is shallower than that of other partially surviving caps. In the late 18th century, a neighbouring powder-mill, containing 250 barrels of gunpowder, exploded, demolishing the existing parish church. The tower, remarkably, survived the force of the explosion. Clondalkin (H 27.5m; base diam. 4.4m) is built of roughly coursed hammer-dressed Dublin calp limestone, with many smaller insertions and spalls. It is one of the slenderest of all the towers and exhibits a tendency towards concave entasis in the drum, where there seems to be a narrowing which widens again just below the cornice. This phenomenon is most probably an error on the part of the builders. The base is surrounded by a one metre-wide circular masonry buttress, which encloses the tower to a height of 3 metres, where it is curved inward to meet the wall surface. A flight of steps, cut into the buttress to give access to the entrance door (H above ground 3.9m), are cantilevered out over the inclined surface of the buttress below the doorway. The date of the buttress is unknown, but it is certainly not original, and may date from as late as the 18th century. The base and steps are possibly not contemporary. The door, which faces east towards the present parish church, is lintelled and with inclined jambs. The well-articulated slender doorcase of four jambstones on either side, with sill and lintel, is of granite. The two windows in the drum, which lit the original second and third floors, are also lintelled and with inclined jambs. The windows of the bell-floor are rectangular and facing the cardinal points. These windows have had modern glazing installed. The internal organisation of the timber floors has been altered, and the present arrangement of four floors (which date from 1827 or earlier) differs from the original five. A curiosity of the internal profile is the almost total absence of floor offsets (a feature paralleled at Glendalough [WI023-008002-]), giving the interior a tubelike profile, rather than the series of inverted buckets which is more normal. There is a single offset to support the entrance floor. Clondalkin's cap, probably the most perfect to survive, is at a less acute angle than others, and sits on a conventional cornice'. See attached drawing of Clondalkin Round Tower, surveyed and drawn by Samuel Molyneux c. 1709, taken from Thomas Molyneux's Discourse concerning the Danish mounts, forts and towers in Ireland, 1726 in reprint of Gerard Boate's, Natural History of Ireland. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 July 2023