Sacred Ruins at the Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel, which is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours (100 miles), south of Dublin rises above the plains of Tipperary and is a magnificent site as your gaze is pulled up toward the sky by the stony points of the ruined church and its towers.

The Rock of Cashel is the ancient seat of the Kings of Munster, and is said to be the location of the conversion of King Aengus, by St. Patrick in the 5th century.  In 1101, another King of Munster, Muirchertach Ua Briain (Murtagh O’Brien), donated his fortress and the Rock to the Church.  

There are few remnants of those earliest buildings and there are no known surviving records of the construction of the 13th century church, so historians have used the remains of the architecture to date the ruins.  It is one of the most remarkable remains of Celtic art and medieval architecture in Ireland.

The oldest building on the rock is the Round Tower which was built c. 1100 and was built using the dry-stone method.  Its door is 12 feet above ground and had to be reached via a ladder; typical for a round tower of those days.  The tower would have had several wooden floors and would have been used for storage, a bell tower, and some say even a place of refuge from assault.

Cormac’s Chapel, which was begun in 1127 and consecrated in 1134, is one of the earliest and finest Romanesque churches in Ireland.  It is considered unusually sophisticated for an Irish Romanesque church and the two towers on each side of the chapel are said to have Germanic influences, probably because the Irish Abbot of Regensburg, Germany sent two of his carpenters to work on the church. 

There are arcades on the exterior and the interior of the chapel  and it has a barrel-vaulted ceiling where various heads peer down at you, it also has a two carved tympanums (a semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance). The chapel also contains one of the best preserved Irish frescoes from this time period.

The Cathedral was built between 1235 and 1270 in a cruciform plan and had no side aisles. The north transept contains late medieval tombs found at the site.  The triple lancet windows are a beautiful delicate feature.  In the 15th century, the cathedral was extensively remodeled with a residential tower-house constructed at the end of the nave and other buildings added to the site.

The Rock of Cashel ruins are amazingly beautiful and the view from the rock is stunning.  We spent quite some time just taking in the view of the rolling green fields of County Tipperary and roaming among the sacred stone ruins and the Celtic crosses in the graveyard, just basking in the mystical feeling of this ancient place.