Rock of Cashel
Hilltop group of medieval church buildings above Cashel, with a round tower and Romanesque chapel.
The Rock of Cashel is a limestone outcrop rising above the plain of Tipperary that was the seat of the kings of Munster before being granted to the Church in 1101. The surviving buildings date mostly from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and form one of the most complete groups of medieval ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland. They include a round tower, Cormac's Chapel, a roofless Gothic cathedral, a fifteenth-century tower house and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral.
Cormac's Chapel, consecrated in 1134, is the earliest and most elaborate Romanesque church in the country, with blind arcading, twin towers and rare surviving wall paintings; a long conservation programme has controlled its internal climate to protect them. The cathedral was begun around 1230 and abandoned in the eighteenth century. The site is managed by the Office of Public Works, and access to Cormac's Chapel is by guided tour with limited numbers.
Highlights
- Cormac's Chapel of 1134, Ireland's finest Romanesque church
- Twelfth-century round tower standing about 28 metres high
- Roofless Gothic cathedral begun in the 1230s
- Hall of the Vicars Choral, restored to house St Patrick's Cross
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