Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel rises abruptly from the Tipperary plain above the town of Cashel, crowned by one of the most complete collections of medieval ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland. According to tradition it was the seat of the Kings of Munster from the 4th or 5th century, and it was here that St. Patrick is said to have baptised King Aenghus in the 5th century. In 1101 King Muirchertach Ua Briain granted the Rock to the Church, and the surviving buildings date largely from this ecclesiastical period. Cormac's Chapel, consecrated in 1134, is the earliest and finest Romanesque church in Ireland, with carved doorways, a stone roof, and traces of medieval frescoes rare for the period. The 13th-century Gothic cathedral, now roofless, adjoins a 15th-century residential tower known as the Hall of the Vicars Choral, which has been restored and furnished to show how the resident clergy lived. A well-preserved round tower, the earliest structure on the site, dates to around 1100 and was used both as a bell tower and a place of refuge. The site fell into ruin after a fire in 1647 during the Irish Confederate Wars, when Cromwellian forces under Lord Inchiquin sacked the cathedral, and the roof was formally removed in the 18th century when the archbishop's seat moved elsewhere. The Office of Public Works has managed conservation since the 20th century, stabilising the masonry while leaving the Gothic cathedral open to the sky. The visitor centre in the Hall of the Vicars Choral presents an interpretive exhibition and holds the original 12th-century St. Patrick's Cross alongside a replica that stands outdoors.