552 



Tlie Pillar Towers of the British Islands* 



[No. 5, 



Peculiarities and Uses of the Pillar Totvers of the British Islands } ly 

 Dr. T. A. Wise. 



[~R,ece%veti 2Mli March, 1864.] 



So much has been written on the Pillar Towers of the British Islands, 

 and so conflicting are the conclusions drawn, that it may he of use to direct 

 the attention of members of the Asiatic Society, to these remarkable 

 monuments of antiquity, in the expectation of obtaining more correct 

 suggestions than have hitherto been made, regarding their use ; as 

 there is a growing belief that they are of Asiatic origin. In the 

 course of the following remarks several examples of Indian Pillar 

 Towers will be mentioned ; and it is hoped that photography will 

 afford aid to prove their relationship with those in Europe. Their 

 number must necessarily be few, owing to the lapse of centuries, and to 

 their having been generally destroyed by the persecuting Brahmans ; 

 and they will therefore only be found in distant and unfrequented places. 



There are no records of the people who built these Towers, or the 

 purposes for which they were built in Ireland and Scotland ; and 

 they are so ancient that the most general traditions among the people 

 are that they were the work either of fairies, or the " good people," 

 or " the weird people of the Beghts" ; or of saintly old women; or of 

 the Danes, the last conquerors, and cruel devastators of Ireland in 

 ancient times. Without stopping to criticise such fancies, I shall 

 confine myself to a general description of the peculiarities and uses of 

 these remarkable structures, with a few remarks on the probable age in 

 which they were built. 



General description. — The graceful outline, and simple style and 

 construction of the Pillar Towers, standing in the solitary waste, 

 or rising unchanged amidst mouldering ruins of churches and tomb- 

 stones, and their mysterious origin and uses, have long occupied 

 attention, and afforded scope for the ingenuity of antiquarian 

 speculators. 



There are 118 of those Pillar Towers in Ireland, and two in Scotland ; 

 and they appear to have been constructed by powerful and intelligent 

 missionaries, animated by religious zeal and a sense of security. Such an 

 origin would explain their resemblance to each other, in their graceful form 



