Glendalough Monastery

The Gateway to Glendalough dates to the early 12th century, and it is fascinating to think of how many visitors have passed under its arches over the centuries. This is the only surviving example of an early monastic gatehouse in Ireland. Glendalough’s gatehouse differentiates itself from the gates into a secular walled town (like Dublin), by some church-like features. Such as the projecting antae, that are unique to early stone churches. More obviously, just inside the gate you can see a very large stone incised with a cross. This may have marked the point of sanctuary, once within the sacred boundary you may have gained immunity from prosecution or violence.

The historic graveyard that surrounds many of the monastic features is itself well worth a closer look. It has an array of monuments and headstones all set within a large quadrangular enclosure between the Glendasan and Glenealo rivers. A 2016 survey by local community volunteers, led by Glendalough Heritage Forum and supported by UCD School of Archaeology and John Tierney of Historic Graves, and funded by the Heritage Council, recorded 1,400 grave monuments. The monuments ranged from uninscribed stone markers, to more ornate headstones, with inscriptions ranging in date from 1731 to the present day. The survey can be accessed here. There can be few final resting places as beautiful as Glendalough.

Standing proudly in the valley, the round tower is one of the iconic images of Glendalough. It was possibly built around 1100, when there was a renewed investment and development of stone building at Glendalough, under the auspices of Muirchertach Ua Briain. The Glendalough Round Tower stands over 30 metres (98 ft) tall and around 5m in diameter at the base. The doorway is set 3m off the ground and faces towards the cathedral. It has windows facing the cardinal points of north, east, south and west. The conical cap forming the roof of the round tower was reconstructed in the 1870s by a team including William Wilde, father of the famous Oscar Wilde. William was a noted antiquarian and was responsible for much of the renovation and restoration of Glendalough as well as a number of other ancient Irish sites.

The Cathedral is the largest stone building of Glendalough monastery. It consists of a nave and chancel, with a sacristy attached to the southern side of the chancel. The architecture of the building shows that it was constructed in several phases from the 10th to the 13th century. The earliest part of the Cathedral appears to be the nave, which was once a simple rectangular church with a doorway to the west and windows along the southern wall. The nave has antae, which are projections of the side walls, a reasonably typical feature of the earlier stone churches in Ireland. Archaeologist Con Manning noted that the lower courses of the nave walls of the Cathedral are dramatically different to the rest of the stonework. They consist of large stone blocks, and they may have been quarried from an earlier stone church that was demolished or recycled into the expanded nave, presumably in around the late 11th or early 12th century. The chancel was added in the second half of the 12th century, with a chancel arch decorated with the chevrons and zigzags that are typical of Hiberno-Romanesque architecture. Finally in the 15th century, a parapet was added, but only traces of this remain in the south wall of the chancel.

St Kevin’s Cross is a finely carved plain ringed-cross standing just south of the Cathedral. It stands some 3.5m tall, and is carved from a single block of granite. Tradition claims that you will have good fortune if you can join your arms when you hug the cross.

The small building known as the ‘Priest’s House’ takes its name from its role as a burial place for Catholic priests in the late-18th century. The building is rather difficult to decipher, as it has been subject to large-scale reconstruction in the late 19th century. It may once have been a small shrine chapel that held relics associated with St Kevin. Fragments of fine Hiberno-Romanesque sculpture can be seen in the building, similar to that at St Saviour’s Church, and the same master-artisans may have been involved. A carved stone thought to depict St Kevin with a kneeling bishop and abbot, was found close to the Priest’s House. The stone has been reused as a lintel into the building as part of the 19th century reconstruction. You can see a plaster cast of this in the National Museum of Ireland.

St Ciarán’s Church only survives as a low foundation, that maintains its shape as a small nave and chancel church. St Ciarán was one of the major saints of early Ireland, and particularly associated with his great foundation at Clonmacnoise. In the Life of Saint Kevin, the Wicklow saint travels to Clonmacnoise to meet his contemporary, only to find that Ciarán had died just three days before his arrival. Kevin asked for time alone to pray over the body, and according to the story Ciarán’s spirit briefly returned so the two saints could have a conversation. Another story relates how Ciarán presented Kevin with a bell. Though geographically quite distant, Clonmacnoise and Glendalough were closely connected, and this church is further evidence of that mutual support.

St Mary’s Church is visible in the field directly across from the graveyard opposite the cathedral and round tower. This church is thought to have been a nunnery. According to the Irish Lives of St Kevin, the saint found two women who had been murdered nearby. He resurrected them, and in his honour they became nuns, and established this church. In truth the church is from centuries after St Kevin’s life. It may have been founded for Derbogaill, mother of the King of Munster Muirchertach Ua Briain. She died at Glendalough in 1098, and had likely became a nun for the last years of her life.

Like many of Glendalough’s churches, St Mary’s has a number of visible phases of construction. It began as a simple rectangular stone church, with a chancel added at the eastern end in the later 12th century. As you pass under the doorway, look up. You will see the underside of the lintel is decorated with a saltire cross.

Two enclosures are recorded near the eastern shore of the Upper Lake at Glendalough. Of these, only one is still visible above the surface of the ground today with the other destroyed in the late 19th or early 20th century. The surviving enclosure is known as ‘The Caher’ or ‘The Stone Fort’. Today it appears as a circular drystone wall. The wall is a mid-20th century reconstruction. Surveys and excavation by UCD School of Archaeology identified that the reconstructed wall partially stands on a low earthen bank, that is accompanied by a ditch. They excavated sections of the ditch, and found material in the lower fills that was dated to AD 428–593. This very early date is particularly interesting, as it slightly predates St Kevin’s arrival in the valley, suggesting he didn’t find it as a wild solitary place. But a living and working landscape. The excavations also found evidence for metalworking, in the form of substantial lumps of smithing hearth base present along with charcoal in the lower fills. They also found animal bone, indicating that people were processing or consuming meat either in the enclosure or in its immediate vicinity. All of this is typical material associated with secular ringforts, and as the excavators suggest, the original use of this monument was not solely a spiritual one but was connected to everyday life.

There are a line of stone crosses set on cairns (or leachta) situated close to the fort. The crosses themselves may be early medieval in date, though the cairns may have been established as penitential stations as part of the pilgrimage landscape. With the pilgrim completing ’rounds’ by visiting each of the stations and completing prescribed actions and prayers at each stop (similar to the Turas Glencolmcille). Though UCD excavations found evidence that at least one of the cairns was reconstructed in the 20th century, they were recorded on an 18th century map. This indicates the tradition extends centuries into the past, perhaps even to the time of the medieval monastery, when its status as an important centre of pilgrimage had been established.

Situated in a wooded hollow near to the Upper Lake, Reefert Church is one of the most atmospheric features of Glendalough and it is particularly beautiful when the autumn colour sets in. The name Reefert derives from the Irish ‘Ríogh Fheart’ which translates as ‘the Burial Place of Kings’. It is traditionally believed to be the resting place of the powerful O’Toole family and other leading dynasties of the region. A small nave and chancel church was built here in around AD 1100, though it may not have been the original church on the site. The doorway appears to be made from reused from an older church. A number of early crosses can be seen in the graveyard, including a decorated stone cross. Other decorated stone graveslabs and a stone cross can be seen in the Visitor Centre, and in the vault of St Kevin’s Church where they are placed to keep them from weathering.

A cave in the rock face above the Upper Lake is known as St Kevin’s Bed, where, according to tradition, Kevin spent many days in prayerful isolation. The cave is thought to have been partially man-made sometime in the prehistoric period, perhaps as a Bronze Age tomb or the remnants of an early mine. In the past no pilgrimage to Glendalough was complete without a visit to this cave, and even into the 18th century expectant mothers would make the arduous climb into the cave to seek protection during their pregnancy and childbirth.

Temple-na-Skellig (meaning Church of the Rock) is located nearby. This church dates from the 12th century, and is likely to have been constructed on the site of an earlier wooden church. Archaeological excavations nearby revealed evidence of huts made from hazel wattle, suggesting that there could have been an early settlement here, perhaps the location for the earliest phase of the monastery. Unfortunately, there is currently no access to St Kevin’s Bed or Temple-na-Skellig.