Sights in Cashel
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Rock of Cashel
The Rock of Cashel is one of Ireland’s most spectacular archaeological sites. The ‘Rock’ is a prominent green hill, banded with limestone outcrops. It rises from a grassy plain on the outskirts of the town and bristles with ancient fortifications – the word ‘cashel’ is an anglicised version of the Irish word caiseal, meaning ‘fortress’. Sturdy walls circle an enclosure that contains a complete round tower, a roofless abbey and the finest 12th-century Romanesque chapel in Ireland. For more than 1000 years the Rock of Cashel was a symbol of power, and the seat of kings and churchmen who ruled over the region.
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Cormac's Chapel
If the Rock of Cashel boasted only Cormac's Chapel, it would still be an outstanding place. This compelling building dates from 1127, and the medieval integrity of its trans-European architecture survives. It was probably the first Romanesque church in Ireland.
The style of the square towers that flank it to either side may reflect Germanic influences, but there are haunting similarities in its steep stone roof to the 'boat-hull' shape of older Irish buildings, such as the Gallarus Oratory in County Clare and the beehive huts of the Dingle Peninsula.
The true Romanesque splendour is in the detail of the exquisite doorway arches, the grand chancel arch and ribbed barrel vau…
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Rock of Cashel's Cathedral
This 13th-century Gothic structure overshadows the other ruins. Entry is through a small porch facing the Hall of the Vicars Choral. The cathedral's western location is formed by the Archbishop's Residence, a 15th-century, four-storey castle that had its great hall built over the nave. Soaring above the centre of the cathedral is a huge, square tower with a turret on the southwestern corner.
Scattered throughout are monuments, panels from 16th-century altar tombs, and coats of arms. If you have binoculars, look for the numerous stone heads on capitals and corbels high above the ground.
On the northeastern corner of the cathedral is an 11th- or 12th-century round tower, the…
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Hall of the Vicars Choral
The entrance to the Rock of Cashel is through this 15th-century building, once home to the male choristers who sang in the cathedral. It houses the ticket office. The exhibits in the adjoining undercroft include some very rare silverware, Bronze Age axes and St Patrick's Cross - an impressive, although eroded, 12th-century crutched cross with a crucifixion scene on one face and animals on the other. A replica stands outside, in the castle courtyard.
The kitchen and dining hall upstairs contain some period furniture, tapestries and paintings beneath a fine carved-oak roof and gallery. A 20-minute audiovisual presentation on the Rock's history runs every half hour. Showings…
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Brú Ború
Cashel’s heritage and cultural centre, Brú Ború is in a modern building next to the car park below the Rock of Cashel. The centre offers an absorbing insight into Irish traditional music, dance and song. It has a shop and cafe, but its main daytime attraction is Sounds of History, an exhibition in a subterranean chamber where the story of Ireland and its music is told through imaginative audio displays. In the summer there is a traditional show at night in the centre’s theatre. There are also daytime theatrical performances. Admission to events varies from €10 for daytime events to over €40 for the dinner shows.
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Hore Abbey
The Rock of Cashel throws in another bonus for the heritage lover. This is the formidable ruin of 13th-century Hore Abbey, located in flat farmland just under 1km north of the Rock. Originally Benedictine and settled by monks from Glastonbury in England at the end of the 12th century, it later became a Cistercian house, gifted to the order by a 13th-century archbishop who expelled the Benedictine monks after dreaming that they planned to murder him.
The complex is enjoyably gloomy and from its interior there are superb photo ops of the Rock of Cashel with creative foregrounds, if you get it right.
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Cashel Folk Village
The Cashel Folk Village is an engaging exhibition of old buildings and shopfronts from around the town, plus local memorabilia and a ‘penal chapel’. It’s a bit slipshod in a heart-warming way: one sign says ‘Ponder around our unique Museum’.
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Bolton Library
In a forbidding 1836 stone building, the Bolton Library houses a splendid 18th-century collection of books, maps and manuscripts from the dawn of printing onwards. There are works by writers from Chaucer to Swift.
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