ROCK OF CASHEL

The Rock of Cashel, also known as Cashel of the Kings, is a historic site in Ireland's province of Munster, located at Cashel, County Tipperary.

The buildings which crown the Rock of Cashel present a mass and outline of great complexity, rivalling other sites in western Europe. The complex has a character of its own, unique and native, and is one of the most remarkable collections of Celtic art and medieval architecture to be found anywhere in Europe.

In the 4th century, the Clan of the Eóghanachta, later known as the MacCarthys, lived on the rock. In the times following, the kings of Munster reigned here. In 450, St. Patrick baptized king Aengus in Cashel. In 977 Brian Boru was crowned here as a king of Cashel and Munster. In 1101 king Muircheartach O'Brian gave the place to the bishop of Limerick. The bishops had a very famous school in Cashel and sent priests all over the continent, especially to Regensburg in Germany, where they had their own church.


BUILDINGS ON THE ROCK

The earliest and most lofty of the Cashel edifices is the round tower, a very perfectly preserved 28 metre (90 feet) high example, which dates from c.1100.

The Chapel of King Cormac, Cormac's Chapel, consecrated in 1134, is the most important building from the point of view of the modern visitor. Begun in 1127, it is a very sophisticated structure, unlike most Irish Romanesque churches which are simple in plan with isolated decorated features.

The Abbot of Regensburg sent two of his carpenters to help in the work and the twin towers on either side of the junction of the nave and chancel are strongly suggestive of their Germanic influence, as this feature is otherwise unknown in Ireland. Other notable features of the building incude, interior and exterior arcading, a barrel-vaulted roof, a carved tympanum over both doorways, the magnificent North Doorway and Chancel Arch.

The Cathedral, built between 1235 and 1270, is an aisle-less building of cruciform plan, having a central tower and terminating westwards in a massive residential castle. The Hall of the Vicars Choral was built in the fifteenth century. The vicars choral were laymen (sometimes minor canons) appointed to assist in chanting the cathedral services. At Cashel there were originally eight vicars choral with their own seal.

This was later reduced to five honorary vicars choral who appointed singing-men as their deputies, a practice which continued until 1836. The restoration of the Hall was undertaken by the Office of Public Works as a project in connection with the European Architectural Heritage Year, 1975. It is now the building through which visitors enter the site.

In 1647, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Cashel was sacked by English Parliamentarian troops under Murrough O'Brien, Earl of Inchiquinn. The Irish Confederate troops there were massacred, as were the Roman Cahtolic clergy. Inchiquinn's troops also looted or destroyed many important religious artifacts.


OTHER FEATURES

The grounds around the buildings are home to an extensive graveyard, which includes a number of high crosses, such as those pictured. The entire plateau atop the rock, on which the buildings and graveyard lie, is walled.

A High Cross is a standing cross with a circle, made of stone and often richly ornamented. High Crosses exist in Celtic parts of Britain and in Ireland; the Irish High Cross has become more famous because of its distinctive shape (the ringed Celtic Cross) and the amount and quality of decoration.

The ring initially served to strengthen the head and the arms of the High Cross, but it soon became a decorative feature as well. The High Crosses were status symbols, either for a monastery or for a sponsor or patron.

The early 8th century crosses had only geometric motifs, but from the 9th and 10th century, biblical scenes were carved on the crosses. There were no crosses after the 12th century.


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