ROUND TOWER, CASTLEDERMOT
From Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland (1900)
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Description of County Kildare | Maynooth College | Franciscan Friary, Castledermot | Round Tower, Castledermot | Kildare Map
ROUND TOWER CASTLEDERMOT.—This illustration presents one of the finest specimens of Ireland's round towers. It is situated in an old cemetery near a chapel and the ruins of a Norman arch. It is considered by antiquaries to be one of the oldest round towers in Ireland, and well illustrates the lines:
The pillar towers of Ireland, how wondrously they stand,
By the lakes and rushing rivers through the valleys of our land,
In mystic file throughout the isle they lift their heads sublime;
These gray old pillar temples, these conquerors of time.
O, may they stand forever while one symbol doth impart,
To the mind one glorious vision or one proud throb to the heart,
While the breast needeth rest, may these gray temples last,
Bright prophets of the future, as preachers of the past.
Round Tower, Castledermot
Castledermot possesses many other relics of antiquity.
In the same county there are other round towers at Kildare, Killashee, Oughterard, Old Kilcullen and Taghodoe.
Description of County Kildare | Maynooth College | Franciscan Friary, Castledermot | Round Tower, Castledermot | Kildare Map