2I& 



sloping towards each other until they meet at the top. In the 

 inside, at about a third of the whole height, are two very large 

 projecting stones, so placed as to give the idea of their having oiace 

 supported narrow winding stairs. A.- '''i 



Kilree tower, which is in height an hundred and twenty feet, and 

 of exquisitely fine masonry,* has some peculiarities which distin- 

 guish it from all others. The top has evidently been originally 

 built with a battlement, and as far as can be judged from the 

 ground, it appears as if the cone roof, which no longer exists, must 

 have sprung from within this parapet. At about eight or ten feet 

 below the top project four or five stones of considerable length ; 

 for what purpose these could have been intended it is difficult to 

 conjecture, as viewed through a telescope, they were certainly not 

 shoots for throwing off water, but very long modillions. Could they 

 have been brackets to support a narrow balcony ? A curious dif- 

 ference in the laying of the stones is observable here ; from above 

 the brackets three or four stones are placed in an oblique line to the 

 tops of the next windows, over each of which is a small square 

 aperture ; the stones in the regular horizontal courses being be- 

 villed off to allow of their exactly abutting upon this sloping line. 



At a few yards distance there is a ruined church of an early date, 

 as is evinced by the style of the masonry, which is far inferior to 

 that of the tower, and by the extreme smallness of the windows. 



The tower of Tulloherin, which is also deserving of particular 

 notice, is now only sixty feet high, but very probably was loftier 

 when first erected, since the upper part is evidently of a different 

 date from the rest of the building. For the greater part of its 

 height the tower is built of hammered stone, a fine silicious brescia,-!* 



* Survey of Kilkenny. f Ibid. p. 631. 



F F 2 



