The Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel is one of Ireland’s most impressive, important and iconic structures. The site of the Rock of Cashel has been an important site for millennia, even before the arrival of the Normans to Ireland in 1169, almost exactly a century after the Battle of Hastings.

In fact, the Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the Kings of Munster, an ancient Irish region encompassing southwest Ireland from the Rock of Cashel down to the southern coast of Cork, the rugged peninsulas of Kerry, sweeping up through Care. Being a place associated with royalty, it is no surprise that the Rock of Cashel was a fortified structure. 

So, how did this formidable royal become a church?

As the reputed site of an earlier Munster King’s baptism by none other than St Patrick, the site held a political as well as spiritual power. In 1101, the current King of Munster decided to donate the site to the Catholic Church in an effort to get into their good graces. 

The original structures were mostly demolished, and the present buildings date to the 12th and 13th centuries, once the Church got ahold of the site. Possibly the most eye-catching and iconic part of the complex is the great Round Tower, which dates to about the time the Rock of Cashel fell into the hands of the Church. Incredibly, the Round Tower was built using “dry stone” construction – which means constructing a stone structure without the use of mortar! 

Another fascinating site at the Rock of Cashel is Cormac’s Chapel, named for 12th century King Cormac. Intricate and beautiful, the vaulted ceilings and grand doorways and suburb frescoes (though some lost to the elements), the Chapel is a perfect blend of continental European and Irish features. 

The final building worthy of attention is the 13th century Cathedral (completed about 1270), a grand structure with a large tower and connecting to the residential “castle.” A Hall of Vicars was added later, in the 1400s.

The Rock of Cashel After the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Like so many other religious buildings in Ireland, the Rock of Cashel was sacked in the 1600s by English parliamentarian troops – in 1647 to be exact. Protectors and clergy were massacred alike, the buildings and religious artefacts were raided and looted, and destroyed.

It fell into the hands of the Anglicans (i.e. protestants, supporters of the English Crown). The Anglican archbishop Arthur Price removed the roof in 1749 in order to avoid paying the roof tax – a horrible English concept in which you paid taxes on the square footage of roofed buildings. This meant that many owners of large buildings simply removed their roofs to avoid paying exorbitant rates, letting their buildings slowly fall into disrepair and ruin without the protection of their roofs.