Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



PART I. 



ERRONEOUS THEORIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE 



ROUND TOWERS CONSIDERED. 



SECTION I. 

 THEOKY OP THE DANISH ORIGIN OF THE TOWERS. 



OF the various hypotheses which I have now to notice, the earliest put forward 

 is that which ascribes the erection of the Towers to the Danes. This hypo- 

 thesis appears to have originated in an observation of the celebrated John 

 Lynch, the author of Cambrensis Eversus, to the effect, that " the Danes, who 

 entered Ireland, according to Giraldus, in 838, are reported (dicuntur) to be 

 the first builders of these towers." But, as it will be necessary to refer to this 

 passage hereafter, I shall transcribe the whole of it in this place. 



"Exiguas tamen illas orbiculares arctasq; turres Dani Hiberniam Giraldo authore anno Dom. 

 838 primum ingressi, primi erexisse dicuntur; non vt pro campanili, sed pro speculo haberentur, 

 vnde prospectus ad longinqua late protenderetur. Postea tamen vsus inualuit vt campanis in earum 

 culmine appensis, Campanilium vices gererent: Tametsi non e media Ecclesise fabrica extantes 

 fornicibus innixa; in altum tendant, vt modo fit, sed e ca;meterij solo in idoneam altitudinem extol- 

 lantur. Vel nominis enim setymon illas indicat illi vsui accomodatas fuisse ; Cloctheach enim 

 perinde est ac domus campanee, voce Cloc campanam, et teach domum significante." Cambr. 

 Eversus, p. 133. 



This hearsay testimony loses much of whatever little weight it might, at 

 first sight, appear entitled to, when we consider the primary object which its 

 author had in view, in the work in which it occurs, namely, to dispute, or cavil 

 at, every assertion in the work of Giraldus, wherein it is stated that the Towers 

 were built more patriot, or in a mode peculiar to the country. 



Lynch's timid surmise was followed by the bolder assertions of Peter Walsh, 

 who, in his Prospect of Ireland, published in 1684, translates nearly word for 

 word the observations of the former, only so altering them that what Lynch 

 mentions merely as a report he assumes as a certainty. The following are his 

 words : 



