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XIII. 



A LIST OP THE EOUND TOWERS OF IRELAND, WITH 

 iq-OTES ON THOSE WHICH HAYE BEEN DEMOLISHED, 

 AND ON FOUR IN THE COUNTY OF MAYO. Bt 

 THOMAS J. WESTROPP, M.A. 



[Head June 13, 1898.] 



Few, if any, of our ancient buildings have proved so attractive to 

 antiquaries as the Round Towers. Round them has raged a war of 

 many theories for a century and a-half, and several antiquaries in 

 bulky volumes have striven to raise the veil which covered their 

 mystery. Yet we have uowhere an exhaustive standard survey confin- 

 ing itself to the illustration of fact, and bringing together accurate 

 information on the subject of so much controversy, and so also 

 students have been often repelled from the subject by uncertainty 

 how far their work may have been forestalled. 



This paper is merely an attempt to give a bird's-eye view of what 

 has been done during the century by giving the reference to the 

 fullest description of each Tower, with its peculiarities and popular 

 name. It omits, it is true, notice of many valuable papers, but nearly 

 all of these are cited or abstracted in the references here given. In 

 the case of the Towers which time and man have swept away, a 

 description is given, so far as accounts have been preserved. A list is 

 also added of the Round Towers whose basements are square or poly- 

 gonal. The notes on four of the Towers of County Mayo, not already 

 described in any accessible publication, are taken from the " Ordnance 

 Survey Letters," R.I. A. 



Several Round Towers which appeared in former lists have been 

 omitted. Ledwich and other old writers in their works name some of 

 the ruins from towns and villages at some distance from their sites : 

 so Ardmore appears as "Dungarvan," Carrigeen or Dysert Aenghus 

 as ** Limerick," Clones as "Monaghan," Dromclifl as " Sligo," Balla 

 as "Mayo," Iniscaltra as "Killaloe," and Roscam as " Galway," 

 These can be recognized in the earlier lists, but when later compilers 

 retained both the real and the incorrect names the confusion was 

 endless, and Round Towers were accredited to places where they most 

 probably had never existed. 



