Rock of Cashel

The walled precinct of the Rock of Cashel is entered through the Hall of the Vicars Choral (15th C.), which housed laymen or minor canons.At the entrance stands St Patrick's Cross, the crucifixion being depicted in high relief on one side and St Patrick on the other. The base, richly decorated with geometric designs, may have been the coronation stone of the kings of Munster, and stood in the open air on the spot where St Patrick baptized King Aengus. Tradition has it that during the ceremony the Saint accidently struck the King's foot with his crosier; but Aengus made no remark, believing that this was part of the ritual.

Cormac's Chapel (1127-32), which is enclosed by the choir and south transept of the cathedral at the Rock of Cashel, is the most interesting Romanesque church in Ireland. The architecture and sculpture show the influence of German (probably Regensburg) and English masters, while preserving a distinctively Irish character (expressed, for example, in the steeply pitched stone roof and the corbelling of the barrel vaulting).The transepts are like towers. The wall surfaces, externally and internally, are relieved by blind arcading and a variety of sculptural decoration. The old main doorway (north doorway: now facing the angle between the choir and south transept) is richly articulated and has a fine tympanum depicting a centaur hunting a lion with a bow and arrow. The chapel contains a 12th C. stone sarcophagus finely carved with Scandinavian-type ornament.

The north transept of the Cathedral at the Rock of Cashel is built onto a well-preserved round tower dating from the same period as Cormac's Chapel. It is 92ft/28m high, with its doorway 12ft/3.6m above the ground.

The Cathedral at the Rock of Cashel, now roofless, still preserves something of the majesty of a medieval episcopal church. The choir and transepts are longer than the (unfinished) nave. The transepts have preserved their three-bayed gable ends and their corner turrets. In the angles between the nave and the transepts spiral staircases (127 steps) run up in small round towers to the massive central tower and to roof walks round the nave and transept, linked with one another and with the round tower by various passages and flights of steps within the thickness of the walls - forming a well-contrived defensive system. In the north transept are a number of fine tombs, one of them with figures of Apostles and saints, including St Thomas Becket.In the choir is the tomb of Archbishop Myler MacGrath, who died in 1622 at the age of 100. Having gone over to the Protestant Church, he was for several years both a Protestant Archbishop appointed by Elizabeth I, and also a Roman Catholic one, since he had not been dismissed by the Vatican!

At the west end of the Rock of Cashel Cathedral is the Archbishop's Palace, a massive square tower (15th C) which is more of a fortified castle than a palace. The west wall is thick enough to accommodate a staircase within it.