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ROSCREA |
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| ROSCREA sits on a low hillock between the Slieve Bloom Mountains to
the northeast and the Devil's Bit to the southwest. It's a charming
place, with streets running down the hill slopes and a certain conscious
lack of worldliness. However, where the rest of Ireland has secluded
river sites and spacious countryside for its abbey ruins, Roscrea has
the main Dublin-Limerick road roaring through the middle of St Cronan's
Monastery . On one side of the road is the round tower, with a garage
shed built into the side of it and the top third removed by the British
in 1798. Immediately opposite, virtually on the pavement, is the west
gable of St Cronan's Church , its yellow sandstone carved out in a
twelfth-century Romanesque style reminiscent of Cormac's Chapel in
Cashel. The rest of the church was pulled down in the nineteenth century
and the stone used as building material elsewhere. St Cronan's Cross ,
just to the right of the gable, must have been a beauty once, but now
it's severely weather-beaten and hacked. Up by the centre of the town is
a large, sturdy-looking Gate Tower Castle dating from the thirteenth
century across the courtyard stands the imposing eighteenth century
Damer House, a good example of pre-Palladian architecture, which has
been restored and now displays an exhibition on the history of the house.
Tours of both house and castle are available (May-Sept daily on the hour
from 10am, last tour 5pm; £2.50/¬3.17; Heritage Card). Backed by a
polygonal curtain wall, it now houses a heritage centre where there's an
exhibition on the imposing eighteenth-century Damer House, which stands
on the south side of the courtyard; the tour takes in the Palladian-style
house and the castle. |
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