554 



The Pillar Towers of the British Islands 



[No. 5, 



The stones of which the Pillar Towers are built were carefully and 

 judiciously selected, and were often brought from a distance. They are 

 fashioned into an oblong square form, accurately adjusted to each other 

 and embedded in a small quantity of shell lime,* the interior being 

 common rubble work. The dressed stones are laid in horizontal layers, 

 or in some cases in a somewhat spiral form, rising from the left to the 

 right, in order apparently to add strength to the building. 



The Pillar Towers were built by different races of mankind for various 

 purposes ; their construction extending over a period of several centuries, 

 which fact will assist us in explaining many of their peculiarities. This 

 has induced me to arrange them as Pagan or primitive, transition or 

 Saxon, and Christian or Norman, which classification will be found 

 more useful, than perhaps, strictly correct. 



1. The Irish Pillar Towers of the primitive, early or simple form 

 are few in number, and are more mutilated than the others owing 

 to their age, to the stones having been selected with less care, and to 





Clondalken near Dublin. Eoss Camk near Galloway. Drumcliff near Sligo.f 



# Ulster Journal, vol. I, p. 146. 



"t A road contractor tried the effects of gunpowder in reducing this vene- 

 rable tower for road purposes. 



