Round Towers of Ireland: Some common questions about them and an attempt at answering them

 

We don't know what the function of a round tower was? 

Round towers have been recorded in the various Annals as Cloigteach which translates as a Bell tower.

We don't know how old round towers are? 

This was dealt with as far back as 1845 by George Petrie in which he convincingly dated them to the medieval period. His paper is available to download here. 

https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalar00petr

Architectural evidence has always pointed to them being of medieval date, mainly by association with the neighbouring buildings but also similar architectural features. See O'Keeffe's Ireland's Round Towers 64-91.

Pg 71 "Why do we date these arched doorways - and the towers in which they feature - to this particular period? It is partly on negative grounds: we expect post-1130 doorways to be more elaborate. It is also partly on comparative grounds. The true arch, by which is meant an arch made with voussoirs, seems only to appear in church architecture in the later eleventh and early twelfth centuries. It was used specifically for the chancel arches of a small number of churches, and yet the churches in question continued to possess the older, lintelled, form of doorway. Indeed, the type of round-arched doorway which we find in the Round Towers was used very rarely in churches, so it is tempting to suggest the first true arches in Ireland were those in the towers. If true arches were in use in Round Tower doorways over a long period of time - before, say, 1050 - we might expect to find them being replicated on church doorways: in fact, the opposite happens: rather than churches borrow from Round Towers, the towers seem to borrow from the churches." 

Corlett, 26 "Round-headed doorways and windows first appeared in Irish church architecture towards the end of the eleventh century and flourished during the twelfth century, when the round arch was at the centre of Romanesque architecture and decoration." 

An early excavation by Rev. John Browne on the interior of the Kildare round tower in 1843 found some fragments of mid twelfth century bracteate coins under the floor (Corlett, 26).

This was strengthened by a date of the mortar from the round tower in Clonmacnoise which was shown to be medieval in date. 

Also Rattoo has been radiocarbon dated to the later 11th century (O'Keeffe, 66).

Very recent excavations at Derry and Kilkenny have down that the towers were built over medieval deposits so it pretty conclusively dates them. 

Regarding Kilkenny 

"The exact date at which the tower was constructed is not recorded historically but its round-headed doorway, evidence for diagonal tooling and lintelled windows are suggestive of a date in the 12th century. Recent radiocarbon dates from human skulls in the National Museum of Ireland, from skeletons excavated under the foundations in the 19th century, dates its construction to after AD 990. It could be suggested that it was the formalisation of Kilkenny’s status as cathedral at the 1111 synod of Rathbressail that was the catalyst for the tower’s construction, perhaps by the then king of Ossory Domnall mac Donnchada Mac Gilla Patráic. In 1846 and 1847 James Graves investigated both the internal and external base of the tower and reported that it stood on a stone plinth that rested on ‘a black and yielding mould, from which protruded human bones in an east and west direction’. Inside the tower Graves noted a 2.3m deep dump over a mortared floor pavement that was on the same level as the external base course of the tower. These overlying layers contained disarticulated human bones, bird guano, animal bones and dolomite debris, considered as having derived from the tower’s construction. An intermediate layer showed evidence for burning and it was suggested it may have been associated with historically attested attacks on the church in 1085 and 1114. Graves also reported that five articulated human burials were encountered after the removal of the pavement. Excavations by Kilkenny Archaeology around the base of the tower in 2013 uncovered its offset plinth foundation which had been constructed directly onto the graveyard soil. When compared with a plan of the tower by Graves and Prim its foundations can be seen to have comprised a 1.2m wide circular ring. The excavation was funded by the Select Vestry of St Canice's Cathedral and the radiocarbon dates by the Heritage Council, with the permission of the National Museum of Ireland."

Kilkenny excavation 

This is based on an excavation by Coilin O Drisceoil

Regarding Derry

Derry Round Tower

There are also references to them being constructed in some of the medieval annals. 

See Annals of Four Masters &  Chronicon Scotorum for references to building at Clonmacnoise (AFM1124, CS1124), and at Annadown (AFM1238)

How did you get up into a round tower and why was the door so high up?

It is likely that a wooden staircase was used to get up into round-towers. Possible evidence of one these structures was found during excavations at Inis Cealtra / Holy Island in Co. Clare on Lough Derg. 

 

Round towers were to protect against pillaging Vikings and were used for defence? 

It seems unlikely other than for a very short space of time. They wouldn't offer great protection and if the timber stairs inside went on fire, the people inside would be in big trouble.

Round towers were laid out to the pattern of stars in the sky?

Any map this I have seen doesn't take into account the numerous towers that have been recorded in the annals but are now destroyed. 

​The Irish Round-Tower Star-Map Mystery - ANCIENT MYSTERIES (weebly.com)

The one here just ignores a lot of the standing ones also. 

Do round towers exude energy or are the on ley lines? 

Similar to the above, the proposed ley lines don't seem to take into account the known round towers that have been destroyed over the years. 

Regarding dowsing - I refer people to this - Dowsing - Wikipedia

Were skeletons located when cleaning out the "bottom" of the round towers votive deposits?

Unlikely, many round towers were built in and around existing early Christian sites. Many may have early burials that they may have came across while digging the foundations of the round tower. Maybe this area was just a convenient place to deposit the remains. 

Corlett, Chris. “Interpretation of Round Towers: Public Appeal or Professional Opinion?” Archaeology Ireland, vol. 12, no. 2, 1998, pp. 24–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20558757.