Timahoe Round Tower

Round towers in Ireland are usually plain - the doorway is a simple opening several metres up, and decoration is rare. Timahoe is the exception. Its twelfth-century tower, about thirty metres tall, has a Romanesque doorway with two orders of carved arches, including human heads with interlaced beards and moustaches on the capitals, worked in a style found on Irish Romanesque church doorways but on no other round tower. Why this one was decorated is unknown. The tower stands on the site of a monastery founded by Saint Mochua in the seventh century, beside the ruins of a later church, on the green of a small village that has otherwise not changed much. It leans slightly. The site is free, unstaffed and open at any hour, with a heritage centre in the old church that keeps limited hours. The tower interior is not accessible.

What you actually see

• The carved doorway - Romanesque arches with heads, unique on a round tower.
• The tower - about thirty metres, twelfth-century, with a slight lean.
• The church ruin - later medieval remains beside it.
• The village green - the tower standing in the middle of a small settlement.

When to go

Any season - it stands in the open on the village green. The doorway is several metres up, so binoculars help with the carving detail. Half an hour covers it.

Honest expectations

The tower interior is closed. The carved doorway is high up and hard to see in detail from the ground. The heritage centre keeps limited and seasonal hours. It is a single monument in a small village.

Nearby

Abbeyleix and its estate are west; the Rock of Dunamase is north.