Round Towers
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
occur of the time of Justinian, attached to the Church of St. Apollinaris-ad- Classem, in Verona; two in the same city, cir. 1047; others of minaret like shape, and divided by string courses, at St. Mary's and St. Vitalis', Ravenna; also at Pisa, Bury, near Beauvais, and at St. Desert, near Chalons-sur-Saone. The French round towers appear to have come from the north of Italy. In the 9th century they were erected at Centula, Charroux, Bury, and Notre Dame (Poictiers), Gernrode, and Worms. Those of Ireland are mainly of the 11th or 12th century, though some are of an unknown date, and were at once treasuries, belfries, refuges, and places of burial. Round towers are found in East Anglia, at Rickingale Inferior, at Welford and Shefford, Bucks; Welford, Gloucestershire (13th century); in the Isle of Man, at Bremless, Breconshire, Brechin, built by Irish ecclesiastics (cir. 1020); Abemethy, and Tchernigod, near Kief (cir. 1024). The East Anglian form, and those of Piddinghoe and Lewes, have been attributed to the peculiar character of the material employed, and a desire to evade the use of coins. At Brixworth a round is attached in front of a square tower.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
Ancient towers, found chiefly in Ireland, of a tall, round, more or less tapering structure, divided into storeys, and with a conical top, erected in the neighbourhood of some church or monastery, and presumably of Christian origin, and probably used as strongholds in times of danger; of these there are 118 in Ireland, and three in Scotland—at Abernethy, Brechin, and Eglishay (Orkney).
