Belfries | Irish Architecture | Briefing | Professor Roger Stalley

Early Architecture in Irreland & Romanesque Architecture in England

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Belfries | Irish Architecture in the Early Middle Ages: c. 500–1200 AD
Professor Roger Stalley

Belfries, otherwise known as 'round towers' or cloictech, built from 948 to 1238, represent one of the most dramatic architectural innovations of the early Middle Ages.

Ireland, Devenish, Tower

Ireland, Kilmalkedar, Tower

Ireland, Glendalough, Tower

The rich and varied character of early Irish stonework is visible in surviving round towers, which even today give an identity to ancient monastic sites. What makes the Irish towers distinctive is that they were circular and free-standing. Over sixty survive, many of them still substantially intact. The towers—or at least those that are complete—range in height from 23 to 34 metres (75 to 111 feet), the tallest being that at Kilmacduagh (Galway).¹

Doorways were generally raised well off the ground, accessible only by an external staircase or a ladder, giving the impression that defense was a primary consideration.

The interiors were divided by wooden floors into several storeys (in some cases reinstated) and the topmost chamber usually had at least four substantial windows. The towers were surmounted by conical caps, built of stone on the corbelled principle.

The first documented reference to a round tower comes in 950 when the tower at Slane 'was burned by the foreigners with it full of relics and distinguished persons together with Caineachair, lector of Slane, and the crosier of the patron saint, and a bell the best of bells.' There are in fact six references in the annals to people being killed or massacred in the towers as they tried to escape from an enemy. ² A round tower was clearly a good place to store the valuables of a monastery and a good place to hide in an emergency.

But despite popular views to the contrary, it is unlikely that the towers were designed with defense in mind. The word 'cloictech' means bell house and their main purpose was to contain a bell (or bells). It is important to remember that the routine of every monastery depended on the regular sounding of the bell, as we are reminded by an early verse:

	The clear-voiced bell
	On chill wild night God's hour doth tell. ³

Punctuality was crucial and to maintain discipline the bell had to be audible. Indeed, the penitentials make it clear that those who arrived late at the daily offices were liable to be punished. ⁴As monastic settlements developed into urban centers, hearing the bell may have become a problem: by placing bells in towers, the audible range of the bell was extended, while at the same time asserting the importance of regular observance.

In view of the lack of any previous tradition of tall building, the round towers were an adventurous undertaking on the part of Irish masons. The gentle taper was executed with considerable skill (a batter as subtle as 1:77 has been discerned at Glendalough), and in many examples the stones are discretely shaped to match the curve of the circumference.

There were, of course, engineering obstacles to be overcome associated with the sheer height of the towers. Stones had to be lifted to a greater height than in any previous building, requiring a reliable system of cranes, jibs, and pulleys, the latter presumably mounted on external scaffolds. Given the problems associated with tall buildings, it is hard to understand why the towers had to be so high. Even at 50 feet, the sound of a bell would have carried a good distance. Those towers that are complete - or almost complete - have an average height of 29.53 metres (97 English feet) and it is possible that there was a belief, perhaps grounded in symbolic thinking, that the ideal tower should be 100 feet above the ground. The average circumference is 15.63 metres (51 English feet), which suggests the employment of a 2:1 ratio between height and circumference. While most towers deviate from the average (some quite considerably), it is interesting to note that the tower at Glendalough is 100 feet tall, with a circumference of 50 feet 2 inches. This is unlikely to be a coincidence.

1.	The dimensions quoted are all taken from G.L.Barrow, The Round Towers of Ireland (Dublin, 1979).

2.	Documentary references have been collected together in Michael Hare and Ann Hamlin, 'The study of early church architecture in Ireland: an Anglo-Saxon viewpoint, with an appendix on the documentary evidence for round towers', in L.A.S.Butler and R.K.Morris (eds.), The Anglo-Saxon Church, Papers on history, architecture and archaeology in honour of Dr H.M.Taylor (Council for British Archaeology, London, 1986), 140–2.

3.	Robin Flower, The Irish tradition (Oxford, 1947), p. 49.

4.	O.Seebass (ed.), 'Regula coenobialis S.Columbani Abbatis', Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, XVII (1897), part XII, p. 230: "Et qui audierit sonitus orationum, XII psalmos". For references in the penitentials along the same lines see Bieler, Irish Penitentials, 55, 63, 107, 127.