Ireland
Low angle view of O Rourke's Tower, Clonmacnoise, County Offaly, Ireland, in the evening. It is quite difficult to date when it was built. A sign at the site states that the tower gets its name from the builder Fergal O'Rourke who died in 964. The Annals record that it was finished by Turlough O'Connor, who was King of Connacht (1106-1156) and High King of Ireland (c. 1120-1156) and Abbot O'Malone a successor to Ciarun as an Abbot of Clonmacnoise. The tower is unusually wide, being 5.6 metres in diameter at the base tapering towards the top. It was struck by lightning in 1135, which accounts for the tower only being 19 metres tall. Clonmacnoise was founded by St Ciaran, with the help of Diarmait Ui Cerbaill, Ireland's first Christian King. Picture by Manuel Cohen
