Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, $c. 85 



of Cashel in recent times, but previously to the enclosure of the cemetery by 

 Dean Cotton, were in the habit of lighting fires within the Tower to smother 

 the young owls and other birds, which made the interior of it their home. 



I may here observe, that some time after the examination of this Tower at 

 Cashel, the South Munster Society of Antiquaries also examined the Round 

 Tower of Kinneh, in the County of Cork, and that the result, as communicated 

 to me by Mr. Windele, in a letter, dated 25th September, 1841, was as follows: 



" We some time since examined the Round Tower of Kinneh. It is based on the rock, and on 

 the inside the tower is open down to its base, the solid rock forming its floor. Thus Cashel and 

 Kinneh prove that all were not sepulchral." 



The want of success of the South Munster antiquaries in these examina- 

 tions, though it may have damped, was not sufficient to destroy their enthu- 

 siastic ardour. Though it was now certain that all the Towers were not se- 

 pulchres, it was yet possible that one or more than one of them might have 

 been erected for that purpose. Accordingly, " they next pitched upon the 

 Tower of Cloyne, and here their operations were crowned with perfect success. 

 Under a solid floor about a foot in thickness, formed of small stones laid in 

 gravel, so firmly bedded as to yield only to repeated efforts of the crow-bar and 

 pick-axe," they actually found, " within a space of six feet diameter, a stratum of 

 earth-mould, in which were discovered three skeletons, laid west and east, two 

 of them lying side by side of each other, and the third under these." To leave 

 no doubt of the truth of the preceding statement, Mr. Windele gives us a list 

 of the eleven gentlemen who were in attendance on the occasion of this inte- 

 resting discovery. " The gentlemen under whose directions these researches 

 were prosecuted, and who were in attendance on this interesting occasion, were 

 the Reverend Messrs. Horgan, Rogers, Jones, Bolster, and D. Murphy, Messrs. 

 Hackett, Sainthill, Abell, Windele, Keleher, and J. Jennings." 



To this last statement I wish particularly to call the attention of the reader, 

 as, if correct, it would follow as a matter of course, that there would be no dis- 

 agreement, as to the nature of the facts stated, among the persons who were 

 present on the occasion of the discovery. Yet it is remarkable that there is a 

 striking disagreement between the account, which I have above quoted, and 

 one subsequently published in the same Cork newspaper. This disagreement 

 will sufficiently appear from the following extracts from letters with which I 



