What are our Round Towers, and what were they for? Peter Harbison is quoted as writing "Round Towers stand alongside High Crosses (not to mention wolfhounds and shamrocks) as one of the great archetypal symbols of Ireland." That is from his Ancient Ireland, 1996. Indeed, wolfhounds and Round Towers, in particular, have been used to advertise everything from stationery to bars of toffee. There were early theories, notably by Thomas Molyneux in 1725 who suggested that they were built by the Danes. The native Irish were not considered capable of such skills in engineering. Then General Vallencey assigned a Phoenician or eastern origin to them, while other fashionable theories suggested they were pagan temples of fire, phallic emblems or even Buddhist temples.
So, at any rate, writes Chris Corlett in the current, summer, issue of Archaeology Ireland. But in 1845 George Petrie put the story back on a sound basis when he asserted that they were "accessories to the principal churches in Ireland"; and he thoroughly researched references in various annals to these structures and proposed various functions for them. The fullest architectural survey to date of our Round Towers is by C.L. Barrow, 1979. (Scotland has two and there is one on the Isle of Man). Definition for our day: "A Round Tower is a tall, free-standing stone tower, circular in plan, associated with a church. They are generally of rubble construction, but some feature ashlar masonry. Diameters at the base range between five metres and six. Excavated examples indicate that these towers have shallow foundations; their strength lies in their tapering circular form which gives a downward thrust."
You could put that another way: these huge, graceful works of architectural art have been so skilfully calculated and built that they defy many of the basic norms, and balance against the natural elements and have done so for hundreds of years. Most of them, say our expert, generally predate the Anglo-Norman invasion in the second half of the twelfth century. It's not possible to put accurate dates on their construction, though Round Towers, it is generally accepted, or widely accepted, date from the middle of the tenth century to the first half of the thirteenth. They were belltowers, places of refuge and perhaps a special mark of distinction for a prestigious church. Read all about them in Archaeology Ireland (£3.50). Choose your own favourite, but here the one at Ardmore, County Waterford is described as "perhaps the best-built" of them all.