Round tower

The National Monuments Service's description

Unlocated Round tower within the village of Rosenallis, marked on current edition of the OS 6-inch map as site of Round Tower. No surface remains visible. O'Donovan describes how an old man remembered a 'narrow steeple of rough masonry, not so high or well built as the Steeple of Timahoe'. Tradition ascribes its erection to O'Dun, Chief of Dooregan. It was pulled down some years ago by the Minister (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, p. 69). The OS Letters of 1838 recorded the demolition of the round tower by the 'Minister [who] pulled down a slender steeple which stood opposte the door of this church (LA003-016002-), because he found that it was in his way, and converted the stone to a more useful purpose than they had served, while piled together in the shape of a steeple since the time of St. Bridget, that is to indulge the curiosity of a number of cracked people called antiquarians and to serve as a habitation for jackdaws' (O'Flanagan 1933, 57). Sir Charles Coote described the monument as located beside the church and contiguous to it 'stands the walls of a round tower, but not one third as high as those circular towers seen thro the kingdom, nor evidently was it built for the like purpose. The walls of a windmill stand at some distance from the village and bear strong resemblance to the tower just described, but the former has no entrance' (O'Flanagan 1933, 69). The location of this tower was recorded as 'The round tower stood between the gable-end of the old Protestant school and the road to Shanbeg. A large heap of stones was pointed out to me many years ago as the site of the tower' (Crossdaile 1959, 1).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 01 March 2010