Ardmulchan Church

This is the very striking tower of Ardmulchan church.
It stands overlooking the sweeping Boyne river with Dunmoe castle visible in the far distance. 
Ardmulchan derives its name from Ard Maelchon, "Maelchu's Hill".
The tower seems to stand to its full height and can be climbed almost half of the way up-on a very uneven stairway.
The church is dated over 500 years.
Mass continued to be celebrated here as late as 1613.
All around the tower is a mix of graves some very recent and some ancient.
The site also has graves from the Great Famine.
It is claimed that the cemetery wall that surrounds the tower was built with the stones of a nearby destroyed castle. 

Ballymoon Castle

Ballymoon Castle is a castle without history.
What is known, based on its design, it was probably built between 1290 and 1310. 
It is thought that the builders were the Carew family who were very active in the area at that time.
The castle is 24 meters by 24 meters, with the granite walls rising to an impressive 6 meters with the thickness being close to 2.5 meters.
The outer walls were once believed to have walk ways, but nothing remains of them today.
Three square towers project from sides while the fourth has a gatehouse as its feature.
The interior of the courtyard is now bare, but markings of fireplaces along with gun loops and arrow slits all remain.
Their is considerable weight given to the thought that the castle may never have been finished.
All I can say is that on a fine day you will not wish yourself anywhere else.
This site is quite simply superb and along with other castles close by, you truly will lose yourself in the past.  
The site is well signposted and can be found just off the R724 about 3.5 kilometres from Bagnelstown.

Armoy Round Tower

This is the the Round Tower of Armoy which stands in the grounds of St. Patrick's Parish Church.
The tower is about 11 meters high and has three storeys.
The entrance door is now 1.6 meters above ground level, this would have been much higher but burials over the last few century's have seen the ground rise.    
The tower (11th/12th Century) is all that remains of an early monastery which was founded about AD 460 by Saint Olcán, a disciple of Saint Patrick.
At the time  Armoy was the main religious settlement in the Irish part of the kingdom of Dál.

Carbury Castle

This striking ruin sits over looking the village of Carbury.
The original castle may have been built in the 14th Century by the de Bermingham family.
The four chimney stacks are believed to have been added in the 17th Century along with some large mullioned windows.
The outer walls still stand strong, but if you go inside the ruin be careful as the inside is not so sturdy.
To the south of the castle is a graveyard, which has one wall of a church and a Mausoleum belonging to the Colley family who carried out all the later work on the castle.

Ballynahatty ( The Giant's Ring ) Passage Tomb

Located a short drive from Belfast and in a perfect setting inside a henge is Ballynahatty passage tomb aka The Giants Ring.

Most of the tombs massive stones are still in position, although one of the roofing stones has slipped.
As a result this gives the tomb a very photogenic look when viewed from different angles.  

The henge is close to 4metres high and almost 200metres in diameter.
The henge which was excavated in 1954 is made up of clay, gravel and boulders.  
The excavations also showed the presence of an inner ditch.

Clonmacnoise Round Towers

O'Rourke's Round Tower

Temple Finghin church and Round Tower

The two towers to be found at Clonmacnoise are part of the stunning monastic city.
Along with the two towers this site also contains a cathedral, seven church's and three high crosses.

O'Rourke's  tower can be found in the north west corner of the graveyard.
The date the tower was finished is generally thought to be early 11th Century, but the tower is named after the builder Fergal O'Rourke who died 964AD. 
The tower was struck by lightning in 1135 and as a result is missing a lot of its original height.   
Allowing for that the tower still stands to an impressive 19 meters in height.
The doorway is over 3 meters from ground level, and faces south east.
 
Temple Finghin church and round tower are located at the edge of the graveyard closest to the Shannon.
The tower which was never free standing is dated mid to late 11th Century.
The later Romanesque Temple Finghin church provides the entrance to the tower.
The tower is 16.7 meters in height with the doorway located at ground level (with no evidence of any previous raised doorway on the tower).
The tower has a total of seven windows five of which are on the south side (visible in image). 

When I visited Clonmacnoise (2008) I was on my round tower hunt, all going well I would hope to revisit  this superb site this coming summer. 
    

Ardrahan Round Tower

All that remains of Ardrahan round tower can be seen in the above images.
It now forms part of the graveyard wall to the local C of I parish church.
The height of the tower stones is about two and a half meters.  
From inside the graveyard nothing can be seen of the tower (an headstone sits where you would mark the center).
Galway has four round towers in total, the other three are very much worth seeing.