This vanished round tower once stood east of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork city, documented in multiple historical maps including those by Tuckey, Hardiman, Speed, and in the Pacata Hibernia collection. All show the distinctive circular steeple that was a prominent feature of Cork’s medieval skyline.

A French traveler visiting in 1644 recorded the tower’s impressive height at 100 feet, making it one of the taller round towers in Ireland. However, like many medieval structures, it fell victim to the turbulent events of Irish history. The tower suffered damage during the siege of Cork in 1690, when Williamite forces besieged the Jacobite-held city. The structure survived this assault but continued to deteriorate, finally collapsing entirely in 1738.

One of the most valuable records of the tower’s appearance comes from an illustration on a late 17th-century monstrance (a ceremonial religious vessel), analyzed by historian Barrow. This depiction shows the tower with “a broken top and six windows vertically in line above a round-headed doorway”—details that align with typical round tower architecture and suggest the illustration was made after the 1690 siege damage but before the final collapse.

The tower is generally accepted by scholars as a genuine round tower rather than a later medieval bell tower, placing it among the authentic examples of early Irish ecclesiastical architecture. Its location adjacent to the cathedral and its architectural features as recorded in historical sources support this classification.

The loss of this tower represents not just the destruction of a medieval monument, but the disappearance of a defining feature of Cork’s urban landscape that had stood for centuries as a landmark visible throughout the city.