The Stump

Right beside The Abbey at St Mullin’s you will see the remains of a very sad excuse for a round tower. In fact it is barely a foundation, what remains is only about 1meter in height, so I have renamed it ‘The Stump’. This tower is believed to have been built during in the 11th century and later to have been attached to the Abbey. Made from evenly coursed granite blocks, there i s no sign left of where the doors or windows may have been. We don’t even know how tall it might have been, but judging from the thickness of the base, it would not have been as high as some other examples I have visited such as Glendalough Co. Wicklow or St. Brigits Round Tower in Kildare Town and may have been similar to the Tower at Taghadoe in Kildare.

Around 1160 St. Mullins came under the authority of the Augustinian Canons in Ferns. This ties in with the Kavanagh/ Mac Murchadha/Kings of Leinster connection as Ferns was Diarmuid Mac Murchadha capital city. There is really very little information to be found on the Tower. Was it destroyed during the fire of 1738 or did the Kavanagh’s use its stone convert the Abbey into a dwelling?

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