Seeking sanctuary

Ireland, like Scotland, England and Wales, has so many castles, churches, stone buildings and bridges, in various states of disrepair but many still in use after hundreds of years, that you tend to become rather blaise after awhile. "Oh, another castle? So what?" One thing that does seem to be unique to Ireland are round towers in old monastic sites. This one is called Clonmacnoise. It is strategically located in the middle of the country on the River Shannon which has always been a major north-south transportation route.

 It was established in the 544AD. There are some funny stories about its founder St Ciaran.

There are two round towers still standing here. They were built as a refuge for the monks during numerous attacks. They would climb a ladder to get inside and then pull the ladder up so their attackers could not follow. They were attacked by Vikings but more often by their own country men. So much for the idea of churches being places of sanctuary.

Two of the high crosses have been moved into the climate controlled display buildings to preserve them. They are over 1,000 years old and quite beautiful.

Numerous pieces of stone carvings from the buildings and grave slabs are also inside.

We visited Clonmacnoise on our way north back toward Dublin. We are staying two nights on the banks of the Grand Canal which connects the River Shannon to Dublin in the east. Once used for transporting goods for industry and commerce it is now used by recreational boats. Tomorrow we drove to Dublin, fly to Bristol and drive south for our final week of ancestor hunting in Devon.