The Rock of Cashel

Royal and saintly Cashel! I would gaze

upon the wreck of thy departed powers,

not in the dewy light of matin hours,

nor the meridian pomp of summer’s blaze,

but at the close of dim autumnal days,

when the sun’s parting glance, through slanting showers,

shed’s o’er thy rock-throned battlements and towers

such awful gleamsas the brighten o’er Decay’s

prophetic cheek. At such a time, methinks,

there breathes from thy lone courts and voiceless aisles

a melancholy moral, such as sinks

on the lone traveler’s hear, amid the piles

of vast Persepolis on her mountain stand,

or Thebes half buried in the desert sand.

-Sir Aubrey De Vere

The Rock of Cashel

It’s difficult to put into words how to explain the Rock of Cashel. Historically speaking, building at the Rock of Cashel goes all the way back to the early Medieval Age (c. 500 – 800 A.D.) where it was the royal seat for the Kings of Munster and supposedly where St. Patrick converted one of the Kings who ruled during the fifth century. In 1101 the castle was gifted to the church and construction on the tower began shortly thereafter. The Tower is the oldest building still standing on the sight and features a door that sits 12 feet above ground level. With excellent sightlines of the entire area the Tower’s primary purpose was to protect the clergy who lived there from raiding parties. Essentially when trouble was spotted on the horizon everyone on sight would scurry up a rope ladder pulling it behind them and simply wait for trouble to pass.

Mythologically speaking the Rock of Cashel is much older. According to local folklore the rock, upon which the church now stands, was cast by Satan himself from a mountain known as the Devil’s Bit some twenty miles away in an attempt to flatten a church being built in another part of Cashel. Having missed his mark, Satan unwittingly provided the townsfolk with an ideal outcropping complete with an unobstructed view back toward’s Devil’s Bit, thus providing the people with more protection from Satan than they would have had without the poorly thrown rock. Especially when fortified with a castle!

Our time at Cashel was probably far more brief than it could have been, because despite the bright sun and cloudless skies it was also exceptionally windy and bitingly cold. We did manage to get some really good photos though.

I also got a few pics of the River Suir where it cuts through the small village of Ardfinnan, where our cottage was located.