In 1238, as political tensions raged across Connacht, the monks of Annaghdown erected what would become one of Ireland’s final round towers. Within six centuries, it had completely disappeared.

The Irish Annals record the tower’s construction during a turbulent period when Aedh O’Connor, backed by Norman forces, was reasserting control over rebellious territories in Connacht. Bishop Murchad Ua Flaithbertaig of Annaghdown found himself caught in the crossfire – his patron, Aedh O’Flaherty of the local Delbhna clan, had joined the rebellion against O’Connor’s rule.

The timing wasn’t coincidental. By 1238, most Irish monasteries had replaced their round towers with simpler bell-cotes, making Annaghdown’s tower a deliberate statement of ancient authority. Nearly every important monastic site in Ireland boasted such a tower – notably absent from nearby Tuam. For Annaghdown, struggling to maintain its independence as a diocese, the round tower served as architectural proof of its venerable status.

The tower’s design remains a mystery. Local folklore placed it south of the cathedral, though Victorian antiquarian George Petrie speculated it might have been quadrangular and connected to the main building. Given its political purpose, however, a traditional circular design seems more likely.

By the time Sir William Wilde (Oscar’s father) went searching for it in the 1800s, the tower had vanished entirely. Modern archaeologist Dr Jessica Cooke argues that its base may survive in the local graveyard, threatened by demand for new burial plots.

Today, Annaghdown’s medieval landscape remains remarkably intact. The site preserves two abbey ruins, remnants of the monastic enclosure, an ancient parish church featuring exceptional Hiberno-Romanesque carving in its east window, a 15th-century castle, and the holy wells of St Brendan and St Cormac. Local folklore, collected by the Irish Folklore Commission, recalls not only the saints’ wells and their traditional patterns but also tales of Viking ships lying on Lough Corrib’s lakebed, echoing the Annals’ record of 60 Viking vessels plundering the area’s monasteries in 929-30.

The monastery itself dates to around 550 AD, founded by St Brendan and his sister St Briga on Lough Corrib’s shores. By the late 12th century, it had attracted two Continental monastic orders and risen to become one of Connacht’s five bishoprics, thriving until its dissolution in the late 16th century.