Product Description
The remains of over 70 round towers are in existence in Ireland - the only form of architecture unique to Ireland. This fully illustrated study looks in detail at each remaining round tower in Ireland today.
From the Back Cover
The Round Towers of Ireland:
were ecclesiastical bell-towers, referred to in the Irish Annals as cloicteach (bell house);
were built between the tenth and twelfth centuries primarily as the church belfries of early medieval monasteries;
are among the primary works of Irish Medieval antiquity, seventy-three of which some remnant still stands, complete or in ruins;
represent an essential symbol and icon of irish culture from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.
The Irish Round Tower:
is both a detailed study and a practical guide to these intriguing products of the Celtic imagination at its most fertile and fanciful;
contains new information on the origin of the towers on compelling parallels from Continental Europe;
is arranged county by county, allowing a reader to locate towers in the immediate area.