216 



tower of Kilkenny ; while TuUoherin, in the same county, has even 

 eight; and some few have no upper tier of windows, or perhaps 

 have only one ; as Donoughmore, county of Meath, Monaster Boice, 

 county of Louth, Turlogh, county of Mayo, and Ram's Island in 

 Lough Neagh. 



Kildare, Cloyne, and two or three others are finished by a battle- 

 ment ; that of Kildare, Harris mentions in his edition of Ware's 

 Antiquities, had been repaired, and a neat battlement added to it 

 within a few years of the time when he wrote,* The top of the 

 tower at Cloyne, was built in 1749, after the roof had been destroyed 

 by a storm, which so damaged the wall, that six feet in depth was 

 taken down and a battlement substituted. -f- 



The doors are generally elevated above the surface of the ground, 

 the height varying from six to twenty-four feet; of this extreme 

 height there is an instance at Kilmacduagh, county of Galvvay ; in 

 four or five towers the doors are twenty feet from the base, and fif- 

 teen feet is a very frequent height. A few towers however have the 

 door on a level with the ground, or very nearly so. At Swords, for 

 instance, the door ranges with the present external surface ; in the 

 tower of Aghaviller also the door is nearly even with the ground, 

 there being but one step up to it. In the first of these instances it is 

 possible the earth may have risen by accumulation of rubbish to the 

 height of the door ; but in the second that cannot be, as the base- 

 ment is visible.§ The door in the tower of Ram's Island is very 

 near the soil, and is approached by a single stone step,ll but whether 



* Kilkenny Survey, p. 631. 



f Ware's Antiquities, II, p. 128 — Harris's History of the county of Down, p. 221. 



J Researches in the South of Ireland, p. 244. 



§ Kilkenny Surveys, p. 631. 



II Reid's Tour in Ireland, p. 179. 



