Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Drumcliff Round Tower
 

County

Clare

Coordinates

N 52° 52' 05.0"   W 008° 59' 51.8"

Nearest town

Ennis

Grid Ref.

R 32863 80110

Map No.

58

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

19

Date of visit

Sunday 6 June 2010

GPS Accuracy (m)

11
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
   
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The church and the tower, both in ruins, seen from the south.


When I saw the name Drumcliff associated to a round tower on the OS map, I wondered how it was possible that the Drumcliff round tower had moved closer to Ennis.
As a matter of fact, the round tower in Sligo county has a slightly different name, Drumcliffe instead of Drumcliff.
This one is a little more than a stump of a tower, standing on the taller spot of the Drumcliff graveyard right outside the town of Ennis. The lowest part of this tower is only 2.50 metres from the gorund, while the highest point reaches about 11 metres. According to the informative sign, it should have been twice as tall when it was intact. Most of the south section is missing, so that the inner walls are exposed.
It is alleged that an early monastic settlement was established here in the 10th century, even if the graveyard that we see today dates back to the 15th century. The round tower could be part of the early monastery, so it's about 1,000 years old. According to some sources two centuries ago a door and three windows were still visible in the tower.
Next to the tower is an old and ruined church which dates back to the 15th century even though its west gable is probably as old as the round tower. It is likely that the current building was built using a part of the early church.
The church has nothing interesting to see.


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 21793539

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter