Dysert O'Dea

Dysert O'Dea was founded by Saint Tola in the eighth century and the surviving buildings are much later. The church has a Romanesque doorway of around 1100 reassembled in the nineteenth century, with twelve carved heads - human and animal - in its arch, and the round tower survives as a stump after being fired on in the seventeenth century. The high cross, sometimes called the White Cross of Tola, dates to about 1100 and carries a high-relief Christ and a bishop figure on its eastern face, standing separately in the field. Nearby is the site of the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318, where Conor O'Dea defeated and killed Richard de Clare, effectively ending Norman ambitions in Thomond for two centuries. O'Dea Castle, a fifteenth-century tower house, houses an archaeology museum and is the ticketed part; a signposted trail links about two dozen monuments in the area.

What you actually see

• The Romanesque doorway - twelve carved heads in the arch, around 1100.
• The high cross - the White Cross of Tola, with Christ and a bishop figure.
• The round tower stump - what remains after seventeenth-century damage.
• The battle site - where de Clare was defeated and killed in 1318.

When to go

April to September for the castle museum, which is seasonal. The church, tower and cross are in an open field and accessible year-round. The archaeology trail takes a couple of hours.

Honest expectations

The castle museum is seasonal and privately run with limited hours. The church and cross are in a field with no facilities. The trail crosses farmland - gates, livestock and mud.

Nearby

Corofin and the Clare Heritage Centre are close; the Burren begins to the north.