Round Tower
The round tower and the monastery of Clondalkin (Chluain Dolcáin/Dolcáin’s Meadow) was described in the Urban Survey of Dublin (Bradley and King 1988, 215-24) as follows; ‘The origins of the settlement of Clondalkin lie in the Early Christian period with the foundation of a monastery there in the seventh century by St Mochua (Cronan) (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 31). Abbots are first mentioned in the annals during the eighth century and it is recorded that the relics of Mochua were translated here in 789. The monastery was sufficiently important to be plundered by the Vikings in 833 and shortly afterwards Clondalkin became a base for Viking activities in the area. Little is known of this period of Clondalkin’s history, which, is potentially significant archaeologically because it appears to be one of the few recorded Viking rural settlement sites. A fort was established by Olaf the White, the first Norwegian king of Dublin. It is recorded only once in the annals, when it was attacked and captured in 867 by two Leinster chieftains: “Amlaib’s fort at Cluain Dolcain [Clondalkin] was burned by Gaithine’s son and Mael Ciarain son of Ronan, and the aforesaid commanders caused a slaughter of a hundred of the leaders of the foreigners in the vicinity of Cluain Dolcain on the same day” (MacNiocaill 1983, 323). The implication of this entry is that there was also Viking settlement in the vicinity of Clondalkin but unfortunately the exact whereabouts of the fort itself is unknown. The Vikings may simply have taken over the early monastery and fortified it as they seem to have done elsewhere, at St. Mullin’s [CW026-011—-] and Monasterboice [LH021-062001-] for instance. It is equally possible, of course, that the Viking fort was simply located close to the monastery and the nearby placename Raheen may be significant in this regard (Ua Broin 1942, 206). Unfortunately the reference remains rather enigmatic and it is unknown whether the Vikings returned to settle here in the tenth century or not. It is of interest, however, to note the tradition that the church lands of Clondalkin were given to the archdiocese by the MacGilla Mocholmog family, who were vassals of the later Norse kings of Dublin (White 1959, no 111). The monastery was burned in 1071 but in 1077 it was the subject of a struggle between rival factions for control of the abbacy which; resulted in the granting of the church to the Célí Dé (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 31). Like the other Célí Dé monasteries of Tallaght [DU021-037002-] and Finglas [DU014-066—-] the lands became part of the see lands of the diocese of Dublin. According to the Down Survey of 1657 there stood at Clondalkin then only the stump of a castle, some thatched houses and the round tower, which was described as a high watch tower (Ball 1902-20, iv, 117-18). This is situated beside the road, opposite the churchyard. It is complete with conical cap and internally there are floors and ladders complete to the top; these were inserted sometime between 1783 and 1827 (Barrow 1979, 80). There is a bulging base, probably added in the eighteenth which has steps cut into it up to the doorway. The masonry consists of calp limestone with some granites. The doorway, which is lintelled, is of granite. There were five storeys originally but the remodel ling ignored the position of two of these and consequently there are now only four. There are four windows in the top storey facing the cardinal points’.
35953,DU01338,ROTR,DU018-020083-,DUBLIN,Dublin South City,R192946,715295,733766,53.341547749999997,-6.268618310000000,Round tower,Not indicated,Not indicated,https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8&query=18a4b61b268-layer-9%2CSMRS%2CDU018-020083-,The round tower associated with the medieval church (DU018-020082-) of St. Michael Le Pole
Monument Type: Round tower